“Alright well then what will the houses be made from? We can't keep chopping down every tree. We are going to run out of lumber sooner or later. We need something renewable, easily manufactured, and can be used in a wide variety of buildings and construction.”
“Niki is right, it will need to be made out of natural materials. If we have enough people, something like the cellulose we use to make the tools would be effective.”
“We could do that, making large sheets of the material to use in siding. Or maybe like how they cross laminated with timber. Essentially make some long thin planks and put a layer facing one direction and then adhere another layer facing perpendicular.” It was a method developed to use lumber in large structures and small skyscrapers. It was stronger than most concrete and steel while using wood. It was strong but not perfect, it couldn’t be used in anything over like six or seven stories.
I could make cellulose into planks and adhesive is easy enough. The problem is that cellulose takes a very long time to make, even simple planks. Without enough people it would take over a day to make the planks needed for even a small pile.
“Hmmm, alright so we need something less complex than cellulose or a faster way to manufacture it. Well cellulose is the strongest natural material, I mean ironwood trees in Australia are stronger than some metals. So a faster manufacturing process would be ideal.”
“Well the ideal scenario would be having trees make the cellulose, if you are capable of bonding to the ash tree in New York. It should make the whole process easier, just as creating new bones is easy for you.”
Yes, that would be nice. Although I worry that bonding with the tree may come with its own set of problems. I was only connected to it for a few hours, and most of that was when I was starving and scared. I did not have time to truly test my bond with the tree and we don’t know how it will affect all of you to be connected to it.
“We will just have to try it and see. Rein should be in New York by tomorrow morning. If you are capable of bonding with the tree we can hopefully use it without too many issues. So for now I suppose we can put this discussion on hold.” I pushed aside the sheet of Myc made paper and looked over the rest of the charts, tables, graphs, and plans. There was a lot that we had to prepare for, the plan was that once we figured out if Myc could bond with a tree we would move on to ‘phase 2’.
I like the name Germinating Seed.
“Fine.” Plan Germinating Seed, would be when we really hunkered down on construction. We would pool our resources and buy a few of the surrounding lands. Then we would expand the little site we currently had, by the time harvest was over we planned to have at least the bunk houses and storage done. Then we would split into teams, one to clear more land, and the other to continue the building process.
The bunkhouses could fit a good twenty people each when stuffed, so depending on how well the first recruitment process went. We would either be using the bunkhouses for storage or guests, while the number of houses expanded. The other major projects were the ever expanding number of necessary town buildings. Even if everyone was connected through the bond, we still needed a general place to cook and get food, make and give clothing, and factory areas to produce materials.
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It was actually strange how little was needed, with the bond allowing instant communication and Myc being the leader capable of talking to all of us at once. Places like a city hall and post office weren’t needed. Myc was capable of fixing nearly every cosmetic and medical issue so no salons, barbers, or hospitals. Although some places may still have to be built, where a fire department may not be necessary, excess water should be stored incase of emergency. A more modern sewage system was needed, although many of those could be easily dealt with if Myc could bond to the tree. Then we would enter phase 3.
I still would like to call it the First Sprouting.
“Whatever.” The plan was to start the recruitment process truly, slowly introducing and increasing our presence. It would start small, using simple social media to get a few more recruits into the ‘cult’. Then as it grew and we started producing goods or getting donations we would increase advertisement. It would be a slow deliberate process that would unfortunately have to evolve over time. We weren’t sure how the general populace would react to being infected and we had to keep Myc quiet until we deemed them trustful enough.
Then we would have to see if the other species were keeping themselves quiet or if they started openly expanding. We would have to wait and see how the government reacts to their presence before we announce ours. Finally we had to see if Myc had a limit to the number of bonds it could make. Theoretically Myc could expand essentially infinitely, and maybe could, but the problem was if the bonds strained too much. It should be fine to have a hundred people, but what about a thousand, or a million.
Phase 3 would…
The First Sprouting.
The First Sprouting, would be one of reaction which none of us liked. It left too many variables for other species to act on, it also left us on the defensive. We had too little information and possibly even less time than we hoped if things went sideways.
It will be okay, worrying about the future is good when planning. However, if all you do is worry it impedes your actions in the present. We will see what changes need to be made to the Germination process tomorrow when Rein arrives in New York. Then once we have more info and a plan, we can see about how to improve the Sprouting.
“There is little else we can do at this point anyway. The fields are mostly planted and we have a slowly growing excess of supplies. For now we enjoy the little free time we have, I will be heading to the lake to attempt to clean out any pollutants.”
“Alright, alright fine. I suppose I will help, nothing else to really do right now I guess.” So set, but unsatisfied, I piled all the papers together and set down the little tree paper weight. Following John out to the lake, we both went in. John sank to the bottom while I sat closer to the shore, I was still a little uncomfortable with such extreme body modifications like getting gills.
Nate had been the first to propose the idea, granted he just wanted to swim in the now bi enough pool of water. When we finally decided to clear the lake, rather than waiting for Myc to do it by itself. John suggested using our bodies as small filters, we could take in water, Myc could dissolve any bacteria or parasites that might be there. Then push out the now clean filtered water.
The process felt strange, it was like breathing in a big gulp of water. It filled our emptied stomachs, sat there for a few minutes then was pushed out. John was fine with the gills so he allowed the air into his lungs and stomach, Myc did his thing, then pushed out the clean water.
It would be nearly impossible to clean the whole lake this way, the parasites and bacteria that were left over still spread and multiplied. However, it did help decrease their numbers, clean the water of any human made pollution, and it cleaned all the extra algae making the water slowly clear up.
I looked down at John through the haze of still dirty water, he sat at the bottom of the lake nearly 10 feet down. Legs crossed, hand resting with his palms facing upward on his lap. The guy looked tranquil, his mind held nothing but his steady breathing. Watching him, knowing that it would be a few hours before any real progress was made, I aligned my breathing with his and emptied my mind. It was tranquil, listening to the birds tweet their little songs, the breeze in the air, and the sounds of a quad making its way through the trees.
A quad?