Ok, I just gotta do this one. Sorry if it gets a little technical, this is my field. I've literally been to scientific workshops on terraforming.
A Planet Grown Anew - Place the seeds, till the soils, mix the waters, and churn the growths. Turn the tables, guide the growths, burn the forests, mix the ashes. Seed the clouds, water the charred earths, relish the sunlight, chatter with the fishes. March with the insects, uplift the
amoebas, downgrade the pests, and enjoy a rest. A world now living where before there was none. Another world awaits to have life donated to its dead shores.
(Focus: The Irrita terraform another planet.)
The Song-of-Growth tasted the new soil underneath their roots and vibrated in satisfaction, reveling in the fulfillment of their duties. They felt the distribution of minerals, noting a low concentration of organic acids and a high concentration of reductive salts. It was only to be expected. This planet did not have the history for a rich soil layer, even here at the equator.
That was fine. It would come, with time and growth. The sun was strong here, and the bright grasses and shrubs grew well. They had only needed the encouragement in the way that all life did. As the planet warmed, the ice in the subsurface would melt and come to the surface and allow for growth of larger plants across more of the planet. It would take a hundred years for the process to truly advance. But it was a hundred years truly
It was glorious.
There was little that could stop the process now, beyond the deployment of terrible weapons to scorch the earth itself. The atmosphere was seeded, and the greenhouse effect merely needed time. Now was a time of
growth. Some years remained before enough oxygen accumulated enough for large animals, such as those who would one day come to call this planet home and build and
live upon it as only a sapient species could.
But this next was their favorite of the duties that belonged to a Song-of-Growth. It was time to introduce larger animals in a proper succession, to spread the insects that would turn over the soil and digest the fallen leaves, to introduce the shellfish who would clean the water and the fish that would consume the abundance of plankton in the oceans.
Then would come the larger animals, the predators and prey to balance the ecosystems.
And to think, the Shipwright's Alliance
paid the Irrita for this service. Oh yes, the early stages were expensive, the mirrors and aerosols to heat the planet, the comets to bring in the elements necessary for a stable biosphere. It had been nitrogen for this world, as was so often true. But those issues had been solved in a few cataclysmic years of change so that the process of terraforming could
truly begin. Carefully chosen microbes spread far and wide to convert the toxins into substances more compatible with life. Rock-breaker lichens to create fine grains that could become soil, and the balanced communities of microbes to hold it all together. All of those things took ships, and fuel, and effort. And
life.
But then the dance of life could begin once more, and that miracle was worth any process, any hardship.
Terraforming was a science, but any Song-of-Growth worthy of their sunlight also treated it as an art. This one luxuriated in the half-complete piece beneath their roots, luxuriating in the ebb and flow of a nascent ecosystem as they contemplated the dance of life that would shepherd this world into its true destiny.
Being a Song-of-Growth was a calling to most, a job to a few. But all Irrita treated the position as seriously as any of the other races treated their religion. For to the Irrita, growth
was unto a religion. One that did not conflict with the worship of other gods, but every proper Irrita considered greenery and growth as good, and any effort that spread those things was worthy. Even the period of winter was agreeable, when the job was done and it was time to relax and enjoy the bounty of labor.
The tips of their tendrils wilted ever so slightly at the thought. They were of a tropical variety, and winter was not in their nature. Every winter period, when they were supposed to be contemplating their past work and reveling in its bounty, they instead spent looking forward to the future. For if their purpose was growth, what use was there in looking to the past?
This planet would be complete in as little as fifty years, and then it was time to begin looking for a new one. The Song-of-Growth did not bother to consult any resource to consider their next options. They knew every planet with a sprout of terraforming potential in the sub-sector. And most of the accessible ones, the ones in the Stellar Growth and the Shipwright's Alliance, had been terraformed or had been claimed by the groves of other Songs.
Once more, the thought was distressing. So much of the galaxy was hostile to life, burning it down and tearing out any new growth. The Stellar Grove had been pleased to make cause with the Shipwright's Alliance, for most others were not so conducive to the harmony of life. The independent nations scrounged for every advantage, and the Irrita had learned not to deal with them. The fewer pheromones secreted on the topic of the... screaming Republic of Asharru the better.
The Song-of-Growth considered the new frontiers, those with the Mashan and the Glimmering Federation. Both were good partners, but far from the Stellar Growth. Maybe that was time to change. Both had welcomed Irrita traders, though the Glimmerling Federation had been friendlier. The far-smells had described a vibrant people, obsessed with making things
better. Their religion was built around the promise that life would improve, that more could be had. It appealed to many Irrita, and the Song-of-Growth considered.
Should they begin the process for a formal terraforming mission to Federation space? Many would consider it folly. It had taken hundreds of years of contact and ultimately support demanded by desperation before the Shipwright's Federation had allowed the Irrita such permission. The Federation would need to permit the Irrita the shift the orbits of comets in their systems, to carry out heavy industrial projects and spread biologicals over their worlds, a heavy request for any government. But It was possible. But it was more likely with the Federation than the cautious-Mashan.
Beyond, would the Federation further allow the ever-increasing number of Irrita crossing their borders to swell yet further? So many in this galaxy hated the other, the 'xeno'. Even the Shipwright's Alliance had denied the Irrita all requests to join them and help all grow and flourish. But the Federation did live with several species already. They may prove more fertile soil than any other.
The upper leaves of the Song-of-Growth trembled. This path was a risk, one born of hope, but a risk nonetheless. Many would call the idea foolish, pheromone patience and calm to allow the relationship between the Stellar Growth and the Glimmering Federation to expand. They would call the Song-of-Growth a weed, to try to grow where they were not wanted.
But the Song-of-Growth wanted to
grow and to help others grow. The place to do that seemed to be the Glimmering Federation.