Better Gardening 6 (Patreon)

Better Gardening

Chapter 6

-VB-

“The government - at least someone inside of it - was involved in that operation,” I said, and Mana didn’t respond.

After seeing what had happened, I decided to return to Station NLS-9, which was my fortress, and waited out the first few days to see if someone would try to come after me.

But nothing happened, and I was left with Narco and Mana to think and decide what to do.

What had started as a fun adventure abruptly ended with a few dozen people slaughtered at the whim of some faceless villain within the ranks of the government who was alerted to the report Mana submitted and acted within the very hour!

Mana had already alerted the proper authorities (she claimed), but it was already over and too late for anyone to do anything but collect the bodies and investigate the site.

Which, according to Mana, would not get them anything useful unless the faceless villain in question was particularly stupid and left some kind of calling card or identifier.

“I don’t know what to do,” I muttered as I curled up on myself.

I … I felt like I was responsible for what happened. I mean I chose to make that report, or told Mana to make that report. If I had just acted without telling anyone, then those people might not be dead and … and …

And I didn’t have memory or expertise needed to dismantle that kind of operation.

Intellectually, I knew that I had made the right call, but emotionally, I didn’t know if what was intellectually right was morally and situationally correct.

But I also knew - or rather, felt - that turning my eyes away from what was a clear violation of the laws was morally incorrect.

So could something be both right and wrong?

“You did what you had to do,” Mana replied.

I looked up and saw a floating screen with her face.

“But people died because of it.”

She shook her head. “You aren’t responsible for their deaths. That responsibility lies solely at the hands of their murderer.”

“... It still doesn’t feel right.”

“I know. It’ll be like that for a while.”

I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “... Okay.”

She blinked. “Okay?”

“You’re right,” I said as I uncurled and stood up, making Narco, who’s been staying by my side, stir. “I trust you. If you say that it’ll be like that for a while, then it’ll be like that for a while. This doesn’t mean that I should just sit here and do nothing.” I tried to grin but it felt weak. “I am still the station administrator! I should do my job, right?”

She looked grateful. “Then let’s do our job, Daniel.”

-VB-

I went back to Pleistocene Era Earth and began to collect samples from the list of scanned organisms so that I could test them against the base environment of Garden World 9.

The work took my mind off of what happened, and, for a very brief moment, I forgot about it all when this happened.

My eyes widened and a big fat smile broke out on my lips when I saw the moss spreading out from where I’ve planted them near the coast. I wasn’t there on the coast, no, but I had my station’s cameras focused on it with side by side comparison of before and after images.

“Mana, look! It’s growing!”

“Yes, administrator. The moss grew,” Mana replied with a deadpan.

“It’s beautiful!”

“It’s moss, Daniel. There is nothing special.”

“But it’s my moss! My first transplanted creature! Plant! Whatever!” I laughed.

Yes, it was the first thing I moved to Garden World 9, and I was proud of the fact that I helped something grow. There will be more impressive creatures later on, but right now, this was it. I helped life expand to new frontiers.

Sure, it was prepared for me to a large extent but I was still the one who did it!

I giggled.

Yes, I giggled like a girl. I knew that there was some sort of cultural disdain for men giggling like little girls, but I was happy and didn’t care about cultures I didn’t know about except from reading about them.

And it was around this point that I got a notice from the “government” forwarded to me by Mana.

Ping!

And the briefly forgotten troubles returned.

I turned off the camera looking at the moss patches on Garden World 9 and pulled up the notice that I got from the nameless government.

To the Station Administrator of Station NLS-9,

Greetings, esteemed administrator. We here in the Coordinated Imperiums thank you for your swift response to the illegal dimensional portal operations. Such incidents cause devastating havoc to the surrounding environments and must be kept in check and removed as soon as possible.

We regret to inform you that we were unable to find culprit behind the prolonged dimensional portal nor the wanton killings they left behind. Namely, our inability to narrow down the culprit from the dimensional portal frequency you and your assistant provided us was due to the fact that the portal frequency is not in our or any other related agencies’ rosters.

The matter will be investigated, and we thank you for bringing this problem to our attention.

Sincerely,

Jalosa Guinataran, Senior Agent

Department of Technological Regulation of the Coordinated Imperiums

“... That’s it?” I blurted out.

“Daniel-.”

“It’s -. It’s bland and utterly cold. Like those people meant nothing!” I snapped. “And I know, Mana! It’s not my responsibility! I already did my part,” I hissed out quietly toward the end. “... I’m not an investigator or police. I’m just a life seeder.”

Whatever good mood that I got from seeing my first success had evaporated just like that.

I felt powerless.

I felt weak.

I hated it.

Mana didn’t say anything. She knew how I was feeling. She didn’t need to say anything because we’ve been over this before.

I sat there in the control room for … I wasn’t sure. I never checked after but after what seemed like forever, I let out a deep sigh and then got up.

Because there was nothing else I could do about this. I acknowledged it. I owned that fact.

I moved on with my own life and job… but I will not be caught unprepared again.

“Mana, you said I was involved in a … war, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is there a way to get some of those memories back?”

“... Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“If that is the command of the station administrator, I will help you.”

I paused and then turned to look at the screen holding her avatar. “You don’t want to.”

She didn’t respond for a bit before she finally made up her mind and spoke up. “Daniel, you have to understand that you … you weren’t a normal soldier. Your record doesn’t speak the full breath of your experience, and I fear that you will not be the same station administrator once you get your memories back.”

“But what if I needed those memories in the future and didn’t have them?!” I snapped at her. “People died!”

“And they aren’t your responsibility.”

I sneered. “Then what’s the fucking point of all of this?!” I shouted and kicked one of the consoles. Which only hurt my foot. “If I’m just going to ignore all of the suffering and hate and greed that led to the very wars that got people to dedicate this sort of mission, then what’s the point in spreading life to barren worlds?!” I whirled back to her avatar. She looked a little stricken. “Tell me, Mana. What’s the point?”

“... You can’t do everything yourself.”

Her words took the air out of me.

“You can’t be the station administrator, investigator, soldier, and judge all at the same time,” she continued. “I know it frustrates you. I feel that, too. But we can’t do everything. You are the station administrator and I am your assistant. Please… focus on our mission. If you want to quit after this world gets seeded to seek justice, then no one will stop you. But right here and right now, we must do what was entrusted to us. Chasing after justice because we feel powerless here will end up with us failing both justice and our mission.”

I sat back and covered my face.

I hated this.

…

…

But she was right. I hated that she was right.

I wasn’t some superman with a bunch of superpowers. I was a simple augmented every day joe from a glitterworld. Sure, I had been a soldier before but I didn’t know anything beyond that because of this stupid memory wipe/block.

It was ultimately not my job, responsibility, or duty, and if someone out there was willing to kill a bunch of people for some wood, then they will kill me for trying to suss them out.

If they were in the government, then they had eyes on me as well.

I …

I hated this.

I really did.

But I could only move on forward and do my job.

“I think, administrator,” Mana spoke up again, drawing my attention. “That in light of all of these events, it is time you got yourself a second guardian.”