It has been a few weeks since I last logged anything, but then, not much has transpired. We have had a few storms, as well as seeing sea monsters off in the distance. My underwater drones still haven't located anything that explains the bite mark scars I see on some of the fish-like creatures. I look forward to getting the tissue samples back to the lab of the module. I suspect they are just another, perhaps an older version, of the fish we have trapped in the stream for food.
I had to help chase another school of fish into the stream, after the hurricane passed. We did get more fish on that second effort, and had more luck keeping them in the stream while we closed up the entrance with the nets. We got at least fifty fish this time. Should help keep us fed, with the farming that my friends do, for nearly a month.
It is so peaceful here at the top of this mountain. I'm writing this as I sit on the porch Frydai and I added to the house. We have a great view as I chose a higher location that is a good fifty meters above the main village for the house. It has views out to the water in three directions. I can see the secondary peak, towards the other peaks, and a clear view south where the main village and the module. I am watching a distant storm as it passes us by to the far south, essentially right over where the module and the main village is. It is beautiful, the flashes of lightning, but so distant that I can hear the thunder only because of my augmentations.
I've not had any luck making contact with the people at the distant mountains, the group with the more advanced buildings. They don't respond to the language of my friends, nor do they respond to anything else I have access to. So I just have the Drone hovering, monitoring, and recording. My hope being that once I have the full systems of the module back at my disposal, I'll be able to use the recordings to at least get a sense of the language that they are speaking. They are speaking a language, but none of the words seem to have meaning to my friends. I'm wondering if the language of these people isn't that of those clearly like my friends here at Sanctuary, but of one of the other species I see in that town.
I've done some exploring back down the side of the mountain Sanctuary sits atop, both in person and by drone. There is a lot of plant, and animal life down there. It looks like surface plants and animals, yet happily going about their business below the surface. I've taken samples of them as well, even trapped a few of the under-water land creatures.
They seem to be amphibious. Once I got them above water, they didn't die, but coughed up the water and breathed the air happily. Put them down, and they ran right back into the water without missing a beat. The life on this world is fascinating, and has clearly evolved to deal with the floods. The presence of the water doesn't even phase them.
I've been able to get back over to the secondary peak and study the ruins there in more detail. If anything, that major storm did me some favors by uncovering more of the ruins, including yet older ruins. Much like the various different building types and sophistication I've seen at the ring of mountains, the same sort of differences exist in these ruins. There is actual brick and mortar work in some of the oldest ones. These peaks have been used for a very long time as a safe haven from the tides. Long before my friends crashed here. Given that the apparently native life is quite amphibious and able to deal with the tide without disruption. I can only assume that those that have created these structures are refugee's like my friends and I.
I did help my friends add fireplaces to their homes, and improve their building techniques. Once I show them something, they take it and run with it, improving it to better fit their needs. Frydai and I also finished our home, and added a porch as I said.. He has his own room, with a bed and study area.
We also have a small garden on a flat area just below the level the house sits on, that Frydai maintains. He is teaching me how to cultivate the plants they grow, and we now have a pet, of a sort. He took a liking to one of the creatures I was examining that live happily above or below the water surface. Frydai named it Troo, and the thing didn't seem to mind. It was happy to accept the food he gave it, and I found it curled up with Frydai to sleep after a few days. It will even snuggle with me when I'm sitting and reading. It's a cute little thing, not dissimilar to the animals my friends keep for food back at the village. It comes and goes as it pleases, but seems happy to stay around.
Of course, once it got out that Frydai had a pet, others wanted one. There are now nearly a dozen of these creatures as pets in the village. It gives me quite the opportunity to observe them. With what tests I can perform, I have confirmed that they are able to eat the same things as my friends and I. Interestingly, they have four sexes. A female, a male, and two different pseudo-sexes. If a female and a male mate, you get a male, but only one, and he's done. That male will look after that pup and looses all interest in mating.
Gestation is only a few days. If a female mates with a pseudo-sex, than she will seek out another pseudo-sex of the second type. This results in a female and a pseudo-sex of the type that mated her first. The pseudo-sex can also mate each other, resulting only in a pseudo-sex of the type that took the male role. I've seen the full males mate a pseudo-sex, but that didn't generate anything. Still. Fascinating to watch their complex life cycle.
I've spoken with the elders, and starting this morning, I have been teaching a select group how to use the weapons I brought with us. Frydai is part of that group by default, but I taught him back at the main village. I have also taught them how to build some better bows, and using some training video's, they have built a few other weapons. From what I have gleaned from the chronicle. The trip back to the main village is a fight, as all the life, the animals, etc... that goes dormant a few years after the tide, will be awake and hungry.
The new warriors I have been training are very good shots. They are also very effective with the bows we are building, as well as the rifles, a sling, and a spear. The wood of the trees we built the houses from makes excellent shafts for arrows and spears. The wood is almost better than a composite polymer shaft I might print back at the module. I think I mentioned it, but these trees are strong.
With the limitations I'm stuck with right now, I can see how someone with far less access to technology would lose connection to that knowledge. Only the fact that I am trying to teach my new friends, to help them; and my own specific goals and purpose, yet I still find myself just happily tilling a patch of dirt to plant. It is strangely satisfying, but what would be more satisfying is knowing that the rest of the family is okay. I think about them regularly.
Commenti