Project Demeter

[Dane Summers]

This was a red letter day for Lucas.
He was filling in for a Dr. Gerald Rorgen, one of the leading plant biologists in the Colonial Republic. The man was a legend, and had earned his doctorates while the Republic was still in Crayter. What most wouldn't say however, was that Dr. Rorgen was old, and his knowledge of Sirian specimens sorely lacking.
Lucas Bell was a graduate of Cambridge University, and did so with excellent marks in the field of planetary bilogy, and native ecosystems. He had done his thesis on Gaia. Under Dr. Rorgen, however, he was little more then a research assistant. But all that was going to change today.

He was strapped into the jump-seat of the Celestra, crammed next to soldiers, marines, all carrying guns. It was rather exciting, but at the same time, somewhat terrifying. Lucas disliked violence intensely, except when it was movies. Instead of staring at the soldiers, and there guns, he pulled out a hand-held field computer, and started going over his notes.

Just about every specimen of plant life had been collected, but Lucas had never seen them "in the wild" before. Even the ones that were living, were kept in severe hibernation, or cryo freeze - the plants had a nasty tendency to shatter containment units. One whole lab had to be sterilized when a flower specimen came out of hibernation and, within ten minutes, had overrun a lab space that could fit a hundred people inside it. It really was too bad, because the flowers were beautiful.

This was his first chance to see how the different specimens coexisted, as well as how the native fauna, which he had not seen much data on, coexisted as well. Say what you want about Gaia, this planet was far more interesting, because it seemed, that for as long as it had been here, no one knew anything about it.

And at the end of the day, no one would know more about it then he did. Lucas Bell. No longer just a research assistant. He would be the foremost expert on Yuma.

He could hardly wait.

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