"I know you've been studying that plant that Sonar found in a cave, but you've been away for these past two weeks, I could barely talk with you!" said Pax. Over this year, it was clear that the bond between Pax and Darian had grown; it felt as if the human had completely forgotten about Rusty, the other robot waiting for him on Earth. Currently, all the robots were doing their work, Pax was the only one who had remained closest to Darian over this last year.
"I know, Pax… but trust me, I know what I'm doing. I'm sure that this new plant Sonar brought me will be really useful." Darian opened the door to the lab. In this last year, much like Darian's hut, this laboratory hadn't changed at all, it was the same size with the same equipment inside, but now the whole laboratory was a complete mess. Pax glanced around to see multiple plants scattered on the desk, while all around were tons of Darian's notes.
Pax noticed that the Cryscharge gem hadn't run out yet, or at least he hadn't seen Darian changing it. "What surprises me the most is the fact that the gem hasn't run out of power…" pointed out Pax. Darian nodded in agreement.
"Well, I'll show you how the gem is, there are multiple differences between the one I've used in my laboratory and the one lighting up my hut." With that, Darian immediately took a strange plant in his hand, this one had been found by Sonar inside an ice cave on the planet.
Sonar hadn't found anything like it again, it felt as if this ice cave was the only one on the planet, or at least that's what they believed until two months ago. Pax found out that this ice is extremely resistant and can even withstand high temperatures; in fact, these caves only grow deeper into the ground, almost reaching the core of the planet.
The leaves of these plants are strange, they look like a cluster of ferns, but the leafes aren't green. They are translucent, razor-sharp blades that look like ice and feel like frosted glass. Darian even tried to subject them to high temperatures, the moment they melted, a sort of oil came out of them.
Darian hadn't told Pax yet, now was the right time, he thought. "Pax… can you check this?" Darian gave Pax a small bottle that contained a yellow liquid. "I think it is a sort of oil… do you think you can see if it can be eaten?" asked Darian. After giving the bottle to Pax, he opened a drawer under the desk that was very large, inside was one of these plants with a Cryscharge gem sitting close to it.
"I'll check it later… but I'm curious, why are you putting that gem next to a plant? We already discovered with the greenhouse that the heat produced by the gem doesn't make the plants grow well, and we lost six months of work because of that!" Pax was referring to the fact that once Mason created the greenhouse, Darian wanted to use the gems as the main electricity source for the heat to make the plants grow.
But as the months passed, the heat generated by the gem made the plants grow differently, in fact, they grew with half of the leaves missing and looked totally different. Because of that, Darian had to immediately remove the gem and make the plants grow only by the heat of the sun.
"I know… but look here." Darian closed the drawer before taking out a small pot containing one of these plants. "First of all, I decided to call them Prism-Glass Ferns. And second, look at the soil and at the plant." Pax looked at it, and everything was clear; the plant was half-dead because the soil was dried out.
"It's clear, Darian… you haven't watered it even once," said Pax, sounding almost annoyed. "No, I have, Pax, and that is the problem! Look, don't you see that the leaves have a lighter color than the one I showed you before and the one brought by Sonar?"
Pax could see it clearly now, the leaves had a stronger color and were totally different. "I've put enough water on them, every single day! But the plant immediately took all the water and died."
"Wait, so this means…" Pax was so shocked he couldn't finish his sentence. Darian smirked and finished it for him. "…It means that this plant doesn't take nutrition from the water." Darian immediately put the plant back on the desk and grabbed a device to measure electromagnetic radiation. The moment Darian opened the drawer and turned it on, Pax was surprised by the values that appeared.
"It looks like these gems have two uses… they can be used to create electrical energy… but if they are left for three weeks without being touched, look, they create a strong magnetic field." Pax didn't know what to say, all of this felt crazy even to him.
"But the most important part is that these plants grow better as long as there is a magnetic field nearby." Darian grabbed the plant and went outside, followed by Pax. They arrived in a small garden where Darian had been growing all the plants he found over the last year.
"That one is another Prism-Glass Fern, see, it has grown less than this one." Darian pointed out the clear difference; the one growing next to the gem was bigger and grew faster than the other, though the leaves of the one in the ground had a better color and looked more beautiful.
"I've come to the conclusion that these plants grow better near a magnetic field. Without it, and if they receive too much water, they might die. So it's better to be careful with how much water these plants receive."
"Woah, Darian… this feels great. But I feel like, from how you're talking, you've already discovered something else. Is there something important you want to be sure of, right?" asked Pax, remembering what Darian had said when they left the hut, that he would soon discover something extremely important.
"You really are smart, Pax, eh?" Darian walked next to the Prism-Glass Fern planted in the ground. There was a small hole in it; Darian placed the plant inside and carefully closed it.
Then, from one of his pockets, he grabbed a device that, when placed on the ground, would let Darian hear everything happening inside. "Yeah… it's stronger." It felt as if Darian was hearing something, and Pax remained confused, watching and not understanding what Darian was doing.
Darian remained there listening to the ground before Pax spoke up, it seemed as if Darian had completely forgotten about him while focusing only on the experiment. "Darian, what are you listening to?" asked Pax, getting closer. Hearing that, Darian snapped back to reality.
"Oh, right, sorry. Look here carefully." Darian pointed to what looked like veins on the leaves of the plant. Before, nothing was happening, they were barely visible, but now that it had been put in the ground, they took on a stronger color and were pulsing.
Pax noticed that the plant next to the one Darian had just planted was doing the same, but the pulse was definitely weaker. "Listen to this, Pax." Darian offered the device to Pax, who kneeled down and began to hear something that, if he had a heart, would have made it beat faster.
Darian was hearing what sounded like a heartbeat, but soon Pax realized it was coming from the roots of the plant. What was different, though, was that Pax could sometimes hear other weak pulses that weren't coming from this specific plant.
Suddenly, he heard something totally different, it felt as if another beat was moving faster. When he looked over at Darian to call for him, he saw Darian touching the root of a nearby plant. Pax suddenly realized something: the moment he saw Darian move his hand to touch the roots, he would hear a faster heartbeat.
"Wait… are the roots connected?" Darian, reading Pax's face, immediately understood that what he had believed over the last week was true. He first shook his head, then spoke loudly: "They aren't connected directly… but tell me, you heard other beats too, right?" Pax, confused, nodded, not understanding what Darian was about to say.
"You probably haven't understood it yet… but the moment these plants have their roots in the soil, it feels like they are connected to each other." Pax was surprised to hear that. "So it might be possible to communicate with these plants?" asked Pax. Darian thought about it for a moment before he started touching the roots of the other plant next to him.
Pax kept hearing the impulses from the roots until he realized that what Darian was making was a Morse code, and Pax could understand it without any problem!
"Woah… it is so amazing…" Pax couldn't believe what he was hearing. Darian smirked even wider now. "And now… listen to this, Pax." Darian began to walk away, and Pax followed.
"What I've discovered is that, thanks to the leaves, these plants can pass information through the soil… Damn, I can't believe it, it all feels too surreal." Darian sat down on the ground in front of the laboratory. In these last two weeks, he had remained completely closed off in the lab just to see what he would discover.
"But have you tried to see if these plants can send messages to other plants too?" asked Pax, standing next to his friend.
Darian shook his head. "I should try… because if this is possible—" Darian immediately realized something Pax couldn't get yet. "Imagine if the signal can be sent even without the soil… would I be able to send it to Earth, too?" Pax, hearing that, was surprised.
"Wait… it could work! We need to get in contact with Earth… they haven't contacted us yet after all this time."
Darian had completely forgotten that the scientists on Earth could contact him, and that he didn't have to be the only one to initiate contact.
"Damn, right… I wonder why, after that text when I arrived, they haven't contacted me again. Don't you think that's strange?" asked Darian to Pax, who didn't know how to answer.
"Maybe they're having some problems. The fact that the planets are extremely far from each other could be interfering with the arrival of texts. Maybe we will receive them after some years?" Pax pointed out. Darian could only agree.
"I think so, too… Oh, well. We need to get in contact with them, too; I want them to understand how much we've been able to discover." With that, Darian was certain; he wanted to find out if other plants could communicate with the help of the Prism-Glass Fern so that he could reach Earth.
"Pax… now I might need more of your help. Are you ready?" Hearing that, Pax nodded. Darian was sure that with the help of this robot, he would be able to make everything work.
In this last year, while Darian focused on studying multiple plants, the robots had done many other things. Over the year, Aegis was able to tame more and more animals. Thanks to Mason, the ranches for each species were finally finished, and with Ceres's help, they had been able to create natural habitats for them. Now, everything around Darian's base was safer, so he could move freely without any more problems.
Mason had created the ranch and the greenhouse for Darian; currently, he was working on the creation of a small city. Darian had asked him to build it far from the base, as he didn't want to ruin the nature around him, especially because he would still need it.
Ceres had been gathering many other materials, some of which were very useful in the creation of the ranch. Thanks to him, the robots were able to gather seeds, allowing them to grow the habitats easily, and he gathered the wood for the ranch, which was extremely large. In fact, only after eight months were they finally able to finish it.
Sonar had explored so many caves that he had completely lost count. Thanks to his help, the robots were able to discover multiple other minerals and even more resistant rocks. His body was extremely resilient; in fact, he could even dive deeper without feeling the heat of the planet. Currently, he was gathering as many metals as he could, Mason had asked for them, so he kept collecting them and leaving them outside the cave for Ceres to take.
In this year, Darian had barely called on the other robots for help. The only one who remained close to him was Pax, who stayed by his side, always did his work, and remained close to him.