Inspired heavily by the last update to First Flight. Not sure whether this will become a sidestory in the TNF-verse or the B-plot to the sequel. TABJoenie Kermol took a long swig of her sapwood juice, set the glass down and adjusted her wire-rimmed glasses with a businesslike air. "The word 'ambitious' comes to mind," she said in carefully measured tones. TABThe neatly besuited young kerman male smiled faintly. "People said that about the Grove on Duna." TAB"Duna's surface was totally sterile; my team couldn't have had a better controlled growing medium if we'd bought it in bulk from a hydroponics company. Laythe is a very different problem. Not only are we introducing a Kerm to a foreign ecosystem, which for literally any other form of plantlife on Kerbin would be a massive no-no, we know even less about Laythe's ecosystem than our ancestors knew about Wakira's back in the Age of Sail." TAB"We have a huge array of soil samples." TAB"Soil samples taken from one fairly small island. Even here on Kerbin you can find ten thousand new species of bacteria or fungus in a soil sample taken from any randomly-chosen square kilometre of land, and then find ten thousand more species if you move a single kilometre in any direction, or come back to the exact same spot in a year. The variations will be pretty small, mind you, but any one of them could turn out be another Red Blight or something even worse someday. And again, that's just on Kerbin. What it might be like on a moon where life evolved totally separately in radically different conditions is difficult to even imagine." TAB"True. But that native life will have no inherited protection against our antibiotics." TAB"For the time being. And come to think of it, that's another worry. What happens if Kerm pollen or one of our artificial fertilisers proves to be toxic to native life?" TAB"This is why we came to you," the young kerman replied simply. "We're not a large or well-funded organisation, Dr Joenie. We've got plenty of good farmers and a couple of biology graduates, but none of us have any practical experience of establishing Groves even on Kerbin. But without a Grove, we won't have much of a colony to speak of." TABJoenie nodded. "Don't get me wrong, Billick, I support your aims all the way. But it's difficult to uunderstate what a huge undertaking this is. If any of your organisation were hoping we'd be planting a sapling as soon as we unloaded the orbiter then they're going to be sadly disappointed." TAB"That's pretty much what we figured." Billick sipped his coffee. "We're not planning on shipping colonists out for another two years, but we want to send an advance party at the next window in three months. Their job will be to acquire more soil and water samples, expand the existing weather station network and run extensive controlled trials of Kerbin crops in Laythe soil, as well as bolting together some prefabs for the colonists when they get there and other preliminary work." TABJoenie fished a spiral notepad and pen out of her desk drawer. "That sounds pretty workable, but it's going to involve a certain amount of equipment. What kind of budget are we talking about?" TAB"Seventeen and a half thousand keros, plus whatever you can coax out of the university. The good news is we already have some of the equipment you'll need. The KSA had a few spare inflatable agridomes left over from the first wave of Duna colonies, and sold them to us for next to nothing 'cause they were just taking up space in storage. They're not exactly this year's model but they're in as-new condition. We also have the use of the old outpost buildings; everything portable was removed when it was mothballed but the lab facilities should still be useable." TAB"That still leaves most of the lab equipment itself... Hmmm. Give me a day or two to get a list of gear and tally up the price tags, then we'll have something worth presenting to the grants committee. Am I going to be the only biochemist on the team?" TABBilick smiled. "I take it that's a yes, then? And I'm not sure yet, but after this meeting I have an appointment with your colleague Dr Wickley from the Duna Grove project. I can guarantee you the services of two good biologists and an experienced hydroponics technician for your staff, though." TAB"Wickley van Grun?" Joenie raised an eyebrow. "Why the two of us? We were the junior members of the team by quite a margin." TAB"Everyone else either has dependents on Kerbin or jumped straight into a prestigious teaching or research post," Billick replied. "Besides, breaking ground on a new settlement is a young kerbal's game; there's going to be a good deal of physical labour involved in the early days and the climate isn't exactly balmy. But for someone young and fit who doesn't mind getting their hands dirty?" TAB"It's like Geofley Kerman said. You could have the adventure holiday of a lifetime down there." Joenie finally cracked a smile. "Count me in!"
