After Norman and Mervin departed an hour later, Norman got up on the next iteration of the revolving train. The girl followed behind, pretending, rather badly, to be inconspicuous.
Norman was usually a person who tried to utilize every waking moment. But after the harrowing experience of the last few weeks, he was content to just look out of the glass window. As the train traversed the circular corridor, it hugged the curve of the planet. The beautiful view of the green lands and blue waters below from so far up was always an intoxicating one, often leaving passengers awestruck.
Eventually, the girl mustered up the courage and came up to his seat. "You are Norman Ferus right? Can we have a word?"
"Sure, I am free for the duration of the ride." That would be false at any past point of his stay at the academy, but this girl seemed to have caught him at the strangest of times. "What did you want to discuss?"
Neither of them would have known or cared at the time, but all the train compartments were under surveillance. The conversation was recorded in the Academy archives.
He tried to remember if he had met her in the past at some point. He was terrible at recollecting faces, but over the last few years, following his sponsor's never-ending advice on networking, he developed a system to mentally track people by creating a profile of facial features, past accomplishments, interest areas, intonations, etc., which helped somewhat to offset his bad memory for people. Still, he came up empty.
Also, this girl had a face that Norman was unlikely to forget. Her dark, cascading waves of hair framed a face that was a study in contrasts. The late afternoon sunlight pouring in from the window kissed her milky cheeks with a gentle glow, highlighting the delicate contours of her face and the delicate pink blush that graced her features. Her dark eyes revealed a depth of emotion and intelligence that drew him in. Her full, pink lips, ever so slightly parted, seemed to hold a hint of a secret.
"Thank you. And apologies for being so direct. But I came across your research on the Yaskh sometime back." Immediately, Norman felt the skin of his leg tightening again, and his forehead got tense. This conversation had brought his companion back from sleep.
"Yes, I have some experience with their past research..."
"It is agricultural research that I am interested in. Especially their irrigation practices."
That surprised Norman. The Yaskh were known above all for their studies on essence harvesting and deep space warfare. This was the first time he was hearing someone studying their agricultural practices. "Any particular reason you are investigating this?"
"Yes. My field of research is irrigation in resource deprived deep space colonies." Norman was reminded of the arid homeworld of the Yaskh, and he connected the two, "And the Yaskh happened to be a race that had evolved in some of the harshest environments."
"Yes, and they had to develop some rather impressive technology to support their growing population. Would you believe that they had acres of underground farms that supported a population in the order of millions?" His mind drifted back to the insane atmosphere of the planet, where they had attempted to plunder the ziggurat. "Yes, impressive indeed. You are attempting to recreate some of their engineering feats, I take it?"
"Yes, in many of the colonies out in the deep space research groups, the availability of direct sunlight is unreliable - shipping food to these colonies is a big part of the expenses for Zenith Fidaeus."
"Your sponsor?" I recollected the name. Zenith Fidaeus was one of the most well-known guilds that specialized in deep space transportation and mining.
"Yes. They had found my research impressive. But over the last few months, progress has been slow. So I started looking into some of the prior work in similar areas... especially unorthodox ones."
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"And that is how you found the works of the Yaskh?" She nodded.
A feeling of something resembling an appreciation emanated from the parasite.
"So, what do you need help with?" This conversation was going in a direction that actually resonated with his interest areas, and Norman found himself relaxing.
She went over some of the restorations of Yaskh artifacts. Areas where the translations were failing and some of the constructs had simply fallen to the ravages of time.
But over the next half hour, Norman formed a good mental picture of what Arianna, as she had introduced herself, was trying to accomplish.
The solution she had unearthed was as complex as it was fascinating: a bio-electromagnetic hydroponic system that harnessed the power of quantum energy to optimize water absorption in low-gravity environments.
At the core of this revolutionary technology was a specialized hydroponic setup, where nutrient-rich water was circulated through a web of porous substrate, allowing plant roots to develop without soil. However, in the face of low gravity, traditional capillary action proved insufficient for distributing water evenly throughout the system.
To overcome this obstacle, she integrated advanced quantum crystals into the hydroponic substrate. These crystals were capable of harnessing and amplifying subatomic particles, generating a weak electromagnetic field that attracted water molecules towards the roots. This bio-electromagnetic field enhanced the capillary action and ensured that nutrients were efficiently absorbed by the plants, even in the minimal gravitational forces of their alien habitat.
Moreover, the system employed a sophisticated water recycling and filtration unit that continuously monitored pH levels and nutrient concentrations in the water. This allowed for precise control over the growing conditions, ensuring optimal crop growth even in the most challenging of environments.
Furthermore, to address the issue of evaporation, which is exacerbated by low gravity, a self-regulating humidity control system was incorporated into the design. This system utilized a combination of evaporative cooling and advanced moisture retention materials to maintain an ideal relative humidity level within the greenhouse, reducing water loss and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the irrigation system.
This esoteric technique combined the principles of quantum physics, hydroponics, and advanced engineering to create a sustainable solution for agriculture optimized for isolated deep space settlements. The result was a harmonious symbiosis that defied the odds and allowed for the thriving existence of lush vegetation in the uncharted territories of the cosmos.
The more Norman looked at this beautiful contraption, the more he was intrigued. Eventually, he asked, "How much of this is really theory? Have you made any prototypes to test this out?"
"If you could spare an hour, I could show you the current state of progress." Her eyes glittered. She was clearly passionate about her work.
It was impossible for Norman to say no at that point.
He discarded his plans for a haircut and found himself traveling a lot farther than he originally planned. Their destination - Station 189, was connected to an external module for agricultural research, and long before the train halted at the station, Norman could see the huge spherical agri-domes linked to the torus through narrow umbilical bridges. Isolated biomes to facilitate agricultural experimentation in controlled environments.
After a few minutes of walking from the station, they entered the biome where Arianna had spent the last three years of her research. From her appearance, Norman initially assumed that she would be in a junior cohort, but instead discovered that she was ahead of him by a year.
The Ardiso-VI dome was a breathtaking sight to behold. It wasn't as massive as the ones intended for larger multi-decade group research experiments, but still the translucent geodesic dome, measuring over a quarter-league in diameter, with its gleaming, silver-tinted surface reflecting the inky blackness, of space looked beautiful from inside.
After a brief tour of Arianna's past experiments, they turned their focus towards the Yaskh historical artifacts and what looked like some old manuals that Arianna had managed to recover.
With surprise, Norman realized that his grasp of the Yaskh language had improved. He understood the nuances better, as if he had spoken the language all his life. As he glanced at the ancient texts, the precise meaning of the terms jumped at him - the overhead of translation was completely gone. A sense of deep satisfaction emanated from the parasite. Another realization clicked into place - a lot of the early advancements attributed to Yaskh were actually gifts from the Nightwyrms. Knowledge amassed from older ancient civilizations, passed along to their devoted.
As Norman circled around the large collection of vertically stacked algal pods, reviewing the Yaskh research on his tablet and tallying it with the design of the prototype, a few problems began to unravel.
The restoration of the Yaskh research document was incomplete. And Arianna had filled in the gaps using her own engineering prowess. What she had managed to accomplish was admirable, but some of the safety mechanisms she had introduced reduced the efficiency of the overall system, causing the inner layers to be more power-intensive. And as a result, the overall system was no longer self-sustaining.
They spent the next several hours discussing the differences in the original Yaskh design, the adaptations that Arianna had introduced for the specific environments where this solution would be expected to be deployed, and the additional safeguards to comply with the regulations of Irvania.
They only realized how much time had passed once the early rays of the sun broke through the horizon. The glass dome refracting the light of emerging sunlight was a spectacular sight to behold.
"Isn't this beautiful?" Arianna exclaimed, brushing a strand of hair from her face, "I have spent the last three years in this place. Never gets old."
For the first time since he emerged from the cursed world of Sardus Arcemius, Norman smiled.