The Mech Touch

Normally, the Green Sanctum served as a refuge for the members of the Aduc Family.

The biome that the Aducs reverently set up in the center of their terraforming capital ship not only served as their secular temple, but also gave them a close simulation of life on Old Earth.

The Green Dream was not the first big terraforming vessel utilized by the Aduc Family. The Green Sanctum housed within her hull was also not unique.

Nevertheless, the Aduc Family, who often resided on various starships for months if not years on end due to the nature of their work, could never function properly if they could not immerse themselves in a natural, Earth-like environment.

During the times when the workers of Gaia Worldcrafting Services had been assigned to terraform an alien planet, such precious environments might be many light-years away from their postings!

This made it even more important to provide every Aduc access to a sanctuary where they could remove themselves from the cold embrace of their starships or the inhospitable terrain of their terraforming targets.

Practically every member of every generation of the Aduc Family visited the Green Sanctum at least once in their lifetimes.

Many of them visited the important biome every month or every week if they were on assignment.

Even though the Aducs rarely rearranged the layout of the Green Sanctum, none of the family members ever got tired of visiting the same sights and smelling the same flowers.

The familiarity built up over years had become a psychological refuge to them. No matter how much the galaxy outside of their family changed, they could always take comfort in the constancy and permanence of their Green Sanctum.

As the centerpiece and the purpose of the biome, the Old Lady was by far the most central and important feature of this biome.

Try as they might, the Aducs never succeeded in obtaining any other authentic piece of nature from Old Earth.

As the cradle of the human race, the planet had long achieved a mythical status in human civilization. Many people who were born many light-years away from Old Earth would do anything to get even a single grain of sand from the homeworld of their species!

Naturally, there was no way the Terrans would ever allow their most precious heritage to be hollowed out. A single grain of sand might be nothing to the entire planet, but if an endless amount of humans all made the same demand, then soon there would be nothing left of humanity's starting point!

The laws regarding the export of goods had only become more and more restrictive. The few products that the Terrans exported from Old Earth these days were exclusively derived out of cleansed and purified raw materials imported from other planets.

Even then, their value was inestimable as the mere fact that they had been grown on the most famous planet of human civilization was enough to elevate their importance!

It was not a stretch to say that the value of the Old Lady alone exceeded that of the Green Dream!

The Aducs were quite aware of the value of their most precious heirloom. In fact, their generational interaction with the oak tree had made them even more attached to the centuries-old organism.

Every Aduc became so familiar with the Old Lady that they could reimagine her appearance in their minds with a high degree of accuracy!

Every branch, every bark pattern and every mark was seared into their minds as they revered the Old Lady as if she was their actual ancestor.

It was for that reason that the Aducs who entered the Green Sanctum this morning couldn't process the radical changes to the biome.

The alarms sounded out first. The Aducs had implemented a lot of hidden monitoring and security measures in their biome compartment. Any major change would definitely trigger an alarm, and the sounds and notifications changed depending on the severity of the deviations.

The alarm that sounded throughout the entire Aduc fleet startled everyone!

Even the Aducs who enjoyed their rest had been forced awake!

"This alarm… the Old Lady! Something happened to the Old Lady!"

"A life-threatening situation has occurred in the Green Sanctum! The Old Lady is under threat!"

When the initial responders arrived in the center of the Green Sanctum, they became so shocked that their hearts almost froze!

In fact, there were other Aducs who already saw what had happened in the Green Sanctum when they checked the logs and security feeds.

However, they were so unwilling or unable to accept what the monitoring system presented to them that they sent out men in order to verify whether a prankster had hacked their sensor feeds!

"Please let this be a prank. Please don't turn this image into a reality. The Old Lady must not be harmed!"

Sadly for the Aducs who were hoping that the electronic systems had been deceiving them, the first-hand reports of the first responders immediately dashed their hopes!

"Sir… the Old Lady… is drooping!"

She was doing more than that. Her leaves had yellowed and her bark was beginning to crack. The scent she exuded was no longer as fresh and full of vitality as before.

Even the sense of woody life that she had been emanating had weakened! Anyone who stepped close to the tree only felt as if her rot had already reached an advanced stage!

"It is as if she only needs a single push to fall entirely!"

The Aducs soon deployed specialized scanning equipment to figure out the complete state of the oak tree.

A lot of data poured in that showed that the Old Lady had deteriorated drastically without any reasonable explanation. Though the Aducs weren't able to figure out the exact cause or trigger of this change, the outcome was clear.

So much of the tree had aged or decayed in a short amount of time that her once-strong and vigorous plant cells were behaving as if they were on their last legs!

The best botanists and other biological specialists of the Aduc Family did not sit still while the Old Lady looked as if a single bug or parasite could tip her over.

They broke their own policy of letting the oak tree develop by herself and employed numerous advanced technological solutions. The specialists tried their best to restore her condition or at least halt her deterioration.

"Nothing is working!" Pesca Aduc told her mother in a despairing tone. "Biologically, most if not all of our treatments should have taken effect by now. Our race has been living alongside oak trees for a long time and we have figured out everything on how they work. Every single measure we took should have made a positive difference, but nothing has happened! The nutrients and other substances we have injected into the Old Lady are just sitting there as if the cells are all starving to death while on a hunger strike!"

"Are you saying that the Old Lady is trying to kill herself?" 

"No! The Old Lady must still be clinging to life! The reason why we haven't noticed that is because she has grown too weak and infirm to take care of herself anymore. If her approximate lifespan was 120 to 180 years before this incident took place, now we estimate that she only has 4 to 7 months to live!"

"What?!"

All of the surrounding Aducs were absolutely frightened by this revised estimate!

A tree that was in decline was not necessarily a big deal. There was so much time to find a solution that the Aducs never felt a great sense of urgency.

All of that had changed once they came around to the shocking new reality. If they didn't do anything, then their only authentic heirloom from Old Earth might actually perish!

As the third offspring of Matriarch Erexi and a well-trained exobiologist, Pesca Aduc possessed a more thorough understanding of the Old Lady's precise condition than her immediate relatives.

Matriarch Erexi Aduc and many fellow family members were primarily terraformers and possessed greater understanding in the fields of exogeology and ecosystem transformations.

This was why Pesca felt the need to clarify her understanding further.

"That isn't all. Though I have just said that the Old Lady should hold on for a few months, the closer she approaches the point of no return, the more cells she will lose! Her leaves, her branches, her roots and even her main trunk will die off and rot over time! If we take too much time saving her, then who knows how much of our precious tree will be left!"

The weight on their shoulders had grown even heavier than before! The damage to the Old Lady was extensive, mysterious and practically irreversible.

After an hour of engaging in analysis and problem solving, the Aducs finally resigned themselves to the new reality.

"There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the body of the Old Lady." Matriarch Erexi Aduc stated as she pressed her palm on the cracked and feeble bark of the oak tree. "The root of her problem has always been her soul. The patriarch of the Larkinson Clan was right. She is sick from the inside. The only difference is that her condition has weakened to a drastic degree. If you don't believe me, just close your eyes and feel."

The surrounding Aducs did as she suggested and immediately felt that the presence of the Old Lady had indeed worsened since they were last present in the Green Sanctum!

"This isn't a coincidence." Kievenar Aduc stated. "Only a few days after we have invited an outsider into our Green Sanctum, our most important heirloom has suffered a serious decline."

Tierna Aduc had made the connection as well and grew furious!

"Those dirty Larkinsons! We trusted Ves Larkinson to respect the Old Lady, but instead he brought her to the brink of death! For what?! Weren't we supposed to be allies?!"

"We're not allies yet." Matriarch Erexi Aduc corrected her daughter. "We were brought together by the Transhumanists, but before we have signed any formal agreements, we are still strangers to each other. This means that we have not established any rules that prohibit foul play among ourselves."

Her two daughters looked as if they had just eaten a rotten sandwich.

"What are you saying…?"

As the future leader of the Aduc Family, Kievenar Aduc understood his mother's point the best. He let out a tired sigh.

"All is fair in love and war. The Larkinson Clan wants to cooperate with our family, but only on its terms. We have been holding out because we are not so eager to make so many concessions. The best way the Larkinsons can make us lower our resistance is if we are put in a situation where we have little choice but to accept their terms."

"You mean… they deliberately brought our Old Lady to near-death in order to get what they want from us? That… that's illegal! They have just attempted to murder our the Old Lady!"

Both Matriarch Erexi Aduc and Kievenar Aduc grimaced.

"So what if the Larkinsons behaved improperly? Do you think the local authorities in Davute will do anything? They will not meddle in this kind of business! The MTA and the Transhumanists will not move on our behalf either. This is the frontier, and competition is much more cutthroat in this dwarf galaxy! From the moment we have passed through the Red Ocean, we have implicitly accepted the reality that we must rely more on ourselves to solve our problems."

"Even if we can make the MTA intervene on our behalf, it will hardly go as smoothly as you think." The Aduc Matriarch added. "We have no proof the Larkinsons are responsible. Certainly, they have the motive and the means, but as long as we cannot show iron-clad proof, we cannot make any progress. This is especially the case when the Larkinson Patriarch is a tier 6 galactic citizen."

A tier 6 galactic citizen!

The eyes of all three scions of the Aduc Matriarch widened.

This was quite a big deal, especially when it came to galactic bureaucratic processes and matters concerning disputes.

One of the general rules of the galactic community was that it was much more difficult for lower-tiered galactic citizens to trouble those at the higher tiers.

Since their mother was only a tier 8 galactic citizen, the burden of proof to make the MTA intervene was much greater!

In other words, unless the Aduc Family could provide hard and undeniable proof that the Larkinsons or an agent of them sabotaged their Old Lady, they could forget about obtaining the Association's support!