Over the next 3 months, Grayson developed grasses, bamboo, mosses. He reversed trees to their prehistoric variations. He designed flowers with abundant nutrient rich nectar. His plan was to build up the lowest end of the food chain first so any animals he designed would have the nutrients to survive.
As this work was done, Egg refined the system. Now Grayson could see an up to date assessment of each design. That score would change as the environment grew more complex.
[Invader Bamboo- propagation score 35/100]
[properties- increased mutability (human variant), spore propagation (vastly increased expansion rate for carbon sequestration)]
[Ration Moss- nutrient score 65/100]
[properties- high nutrient density (bioaccumulation of essential trace elements within salty sap production), expansive root system]
[Pop grass- propagation score 86/100]
[properties- high pressure explosive seed pods, rapid growth cycle]
[Cambrian Date Palm- heat tolerance score 67/100]
[properties- extremely heat tolerant, large aromatic fruit]
After this time, Grayson was already seeing changes in his ferns. They seemed to be modifying themselves for different niches with every generation. The growth rate was astounding. Any botanist would be tempted to classify a new species every few meters. As the light exposure and soil composition changed, the ferns adapted to make the best possible use of those conditions. They seemed to be able to adjust within a range of their genetic parameters. It might not have been evolution, per se, but definitely a rapid adaptation ability.
He already saw different shapes and flavors of fruits on the ferns. The leaf shape and color would range greatly to make best use of the light. In his AR view:
[Ancient Fern variant- metabolic load: high]
[These ferns have been modified to produce highly nutritional fruit. As such they have an increased need for metabolic energy. Leaf structures have adapted for high yield and efficiency. Fruits have become strongly attached to motivate stationary consumption and increase nutrient exchange. Strong laxative effect in exchange for high nutrient density.]
That sounded unpleasant to Grayson, but he figured the animals probably wouldn't mind eating right off the tree and not having to carry around their waste. He doubted this variant would propagate well in an area with many predators.
The landscape of this Galapagos island was looking more and more lively with each passing day. Grayson tapped into the Ring feed from time to time and saw that other islands nearby were changing too. Ferns propagated through spores, which Grayson had not known at the time of designing them. So the ocean winds were more than strong enough to carry them to other islands, as well as the bamboo he had inspected earlier. The fruits they produced didn't even carry seeds. This might not be a trait they could keep for long, as fast as they adapted.
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Despite the apparent successes, Grayson felt uneasy. The adaptations he was seeing descending from his designs didn't seem like they could fall into the natural range of genetic alleles. They almost felt as if they were guided again by another intelligence. He had not made variations beyond the few plants he had decided to practice with. The printer had not run any cycles that were unaccounted for. Egg was unwilling to activate the printer at all. So who could be redesigning his designs? Was the diversity of an animal's genetic information really that powerful for plants?
Everything was starting to seem uncanny. Thinking along these lines, Grayson walked over to one of the modified ferns he was not responsible for and selected it in his AR interface. He moved his hand over to the terminate option and selected it...
The fern died immediately. Every single cell responded to the wavelength of light that activated senescence. The cells at each layer of the plant erupted and poured their liquid insides out, exposing the next layer down to the light. It looked as if a powerful laser were disintegrating the poor plant, or liquifying it.
This appearance wasn't entirely wrong. There was indeed a light causing the end of this fern. It was beaming down from the Ring and it was a laser. The power level was only a few watts, however. It was only the frequency which was important. The light was outside the range of human perception and harmless to anything without the specific biomarkers for light sensitivity possessed by all the experimental lifeforms.
Breathing a sigh, Grayson was relieved to find out these creations weren't already countering the counter measures. It was fair to say he dreaded creating a runaway invasive species that did more harm than good in the long run. The addition of such a violent response to a specific frequency of light was his only safeguard. He could wipe these islands clean of all his work if something got out of hand by ordering a broad beam blast from Ring.
Nothing would be able to enjoy his high nutrition delights anymore, but that might be better than going extinct from losing to competition from plants. Now that such a thought had crossed his mind, though, Grayson wondered if he should ever tweak the genetics of animals. Was the goal he was working toward to rebalance the climate for the existing species? Or was it to allow species to adapt as fast as necessary to a climate forced into changing at such an unnatural rate?
If the former, Grayson could continue his work on faster and faster plant growth and propagation. Get the CO2 levels under control and wait. If the latter, animals would need to have a similar ability to rapidly evolve that the plants had been showing. That latter option would be much harder to keep under control, though. Grayson had much to think about.
"Egg, have you got any guidance developed to help me see my options better? I'm having some trouble balancing my priorities." Grayson asked.
Egg replied in Grayson's bone conduction device. "Sir, I have some rough ideas. As you are aware, this is a novel problem. I can not guarantee how refined it will be. As we gain more data, I will of course continue to smooth your interface. Here is what I have so far."
Appearing in Grayson's eye the following glowing text floated.
[Quest to save the World]
[Path 1- Sequester carbon to levels equivalent to all fossil fuels ever burned.]
[Estimated time to return to pre-industrial conditions: 10,000 years.]
[Path 2- Help life begin a new evolutionary explosion period to adapt to the rapid environmental changes.]
[Estimated time to reach new equilibrium of species diversity: 1.3 million years at standard animal growth rates.]
[Path 3- Take both paths. What's the worst that could happen?]
[Estimated time to completion of goals: impossible to estimate.]