Better Gardening 5 (Patreon)

Better Gardening

Chapter 5

-VB-

The Italian Peninsula before humans settled in it … it was beautiful.

Instead of rolling hills, mountains, and river valleys filled to the brim with human towns, farms, and ruins, it was an untouched land of old growth temperate rainforests, grass-filled river valleys, and greenery as far as my eyes could show me.

And marring this pristine greenery was a logging operation at the foot of the mountain that me and Narco was sitting on top of.

Filled with people wearing work gear that couldn’t possibly be from Pleistocene Era or even pre-FTL human civilizations.

“What the hell?” I muttered before pulling up my scanner. “Mana, are you seeing this?” I asked her as I let the scanner take a cursory scan of the site that I could see from afar.

There was a moment of silence before she responded. And it began with a sigh. “They are illegal resource exploiters,” she spoke up. “They shouldn’t even be able to get here without a working dimensional gate, which are all limited to the governments, and all governments with them have agreed to the Sterra Compact.”

“... Then what do I do?” I asked her as plainly as I could.

“While Station Masters of New Life Project has the authority to expel these loggers… you are currently lacking in firepower to enforce the Sterra Compact.”

“Then do I talk to someone?” I asked a little helplessly.

Mana didn’t respond. “I am unsure.”

“Why?”

“Dimensional gates are tightly controlled, especially since they can be used to cause a number of undesired effects such as frequent travel leading to spatial fracture.”

I paused. “Spatial fracture sounds dangerous.”

“It is. It causes the space around the frequent dimensional travel region, which is defined as a portal being open for thirty point one seconds on average in an hour period, to, well, fracture. This fracture causes distortions to all matter and energy that passes through the fractured region. This can lead to … spontaneous destabilization. In large organisms, this can mean an uneven and messy deconstruction.”

I had an idea of what a “uneven and messy” deconstruction was supposed to look like. I noted how she didnt’ say disintegration or something like that.

“In energy, it can lead to abrupt cessation of forces that keeps the energy unit together. This can lead to immediate discharge of all energies. In the case of a dimensional portal, there is enough energy in each second of an open portal to burn the surface of a planet with ease.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. Dimensional travel is highly regulated for a reason. Part of the reason why I told you to take scans instead of opening and closing portals at will to chuck animals and plants that catch your interest into cages we have aboard NLS-9.”

That made a lot more sense now that it’s been explained to me.

“Wait, why not just explain it to me earlier so I don’t do it?” I asked her.

“Data showed that station administrators are less likely to become involved with spatial fractures and other dimensionally-caused incidents when they are not told about the underlying mechanism of the universe until such a time that they encounter a situation that requires them to know. Like the one you have encountered. Can you get another scan of the logging site with the deep penetration mode on?”

I did.

This time, I got a red [WARNING] flaring across the top of the scanner’s computer.

“Is that…?”

“There is an active portal that has been open for more than a minute. Dimensional portals that have been open for more than one minute emit a type of exotic radication called Chaharin Radiation. Chaharin Radiation is dangerous.”

“How dangerous…?”

“Accelerated biological material alteration. Lucky ones end up dead from their cells breaking apart everywhere. Unlucky ones are left with permanent disfigurement for the rest of their lives. The truly unfortunate ones … are changed.”

… I could learn about that later. Right now, I needed to do something about that portal.

And then people began to scream out of nowhere.

I focused on the logging site and my eyes widened as I watched as someone literally broke apart into a puddle of bloody water.

“‘Lucky ones end up dead’...” I repeated in a murmur. “Mana, I don’t think they are there of their own will.”

“... I will notify the government. This just bumped up on our list of problems to solve.”

-VB-

I waited, continuing to watch the logging operation filled with people shivering and slogging along. People screamed again as someone else broke apart into puddles of bloody water, and I winced as, after a moment, everyone else went back to work cutting down trees.

Then I heard and saw why they did.

Stepping out from the portal was a black metal robot that stood twice as high as most of the people below and armed to the teeth with some kind of rustic machine guns built into its foerarms. It looked around quietly before it spoke something, and all of the workers quickly moved to send harvested lumber through the portal on some kind of hovering platforms.

I watched as the robot kept a watch over everyone as the all of the harvest lumbar made it through.

And then it raised its forearms and fired.

I froze on top of Narco in shock as the robot gunned down all of the workers, most of whom tried to flee but didn’t get far.

Then it stopped, looked around, and then walked back through the portal.

It was only when the portal closed that I began to breath again.

“... Mana, what was that?”

She didn’t respond for a good while. “There must be someone linked into the government’s internal messaging system,” she responded sadly. “The moment I alerted them…”

“Whoever is in charge of the logging site decided to kill everyone and pull out.”

“Yes.”

I felt helpless. I just watched a bunch of people get killed. My hands clenched and unclenched.

But I knew that I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t know who that was, how they were connected within the government, and why they chose to use people to harvest lumber when they could have used robots like how they sent that kill bot.

I understood, however, that the next time I found a similar site, I wouldn’t be asking Mana to make a report. I’ll liberate those people by myself.

-VB-

A/N: adding a little side spice plot to this otherwise conflictless story.