The lighting in the room amazed Darla. It appeared as if they were stepping off a spaceship and right onto a planet surface. Not like Radison. It was all bright colors, sunshine, and neat sections and levels.
A man who looked to be in his late fifties, who also wore a brown uniform and sported the same holey shoes, turned to them with a smile. “You must be Becky and Darla. I’m Joseph, your one-man welcoming committee. Are you ready for a tour?”
Becky grinned. “It’s so beautiful. Is this what Earth looks like?”
“No. A good portion of our produce is from Earth, though.” He started walking, pointing out different sections of colors, explaining what was being grown in each area. He stopped by a small bench and lifted the seat, pulling out two book-sized data pads. “These are yours. Keep them stored inside your lockers, which I’ll show you in the employee area later, when you’re not on shift. It’s not only contains a map of the facility, but what’s planted in your current location, and what needs done, with detailed directions. They’re linked to the computers running the gardens, so watering happens at a touch of your fingertip. You’ll learn the operating systems pretty quickly. We grow over four hundred types of vegetables, over three hundred fruits, and I believe we’re up to a hundred and sixty-three herbs.”
“That many?” Her sister seemed flabbergasted and impressed at the same time.
Darla was happy to see her reactions. Her guilt over taking her from their family eased a little more.
“Yep. And that’s just this one big section. Wait until we get to the tree room. It’s even larger. We also grow flowers. Most are edible, but we still love beauty, too.” Joseph went on a spiel about how the gardens grew more than enough produce to feed everyone on Defcon Red. Then he turned to ask Darla, “You both worked for a greenhouse on Radison, correct?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “It wasn’t like this, though. We had a few different growing rooms, but they weren’t this big.” She glanced up, looking for the lighting, but found only what appeared to be a bright blue sky. “Where are the growing bulbs?”
“Oh, they’re up there.” He chuckled. “We just like to camouflage them. Those levels you see are there for a reason. The vegetation growing closer to the ceiling needs more UV rays than the ones on the lowest sections.”
They passed a few other workers who were pulling up bushes that had big ball-shaped things attached at the roots, under the soil. Dara stepped closer, watching. “What are those?”
“Potatoes,” Joseph answered.
“They’re blue…and the size of watermelons!” Becky’s eyes widened.
“These are genetically altered hybrids from Earth and Rayna.”
A smiling woman in her thirties stood and held one out. “They take three weeks to grow from seed to this size. Each one will provide four portions of whatever the cooks make. We’ll clear this section, rejuvenate the soil, and replant by the end of the day.”
Darla turned her head to meet her sister’s gaze. They both smiled. The fleet not only had technology that was way more advanced in their greenhouses, but their plants grew at an accelerated rate.
Joseph finished the tour and then assigned them their first task. It was picking berries off rows of bushes in another room. He showed them where the gloves were located, how to fill the baskets, and then where to load them onto a mechanical belt system that whisked them away to be cleaned. At that point, he explained, the berries were either sent directly to the main kitchen that fed the fleet, or to an automated processing center that made jams, juice, and other berries products.
“I’ll check on you soon.” Then he left them with a wave.
Becky was openly gazing at all the colorful bushes around them, and the ones set at higher elevations.
“It’s so pretty, isn’t it?”
“It smells really great, too,” Becky added.
“You have to admit this is better than Radison.”
“It’s not all dingy.”
“We might get a tan for once, since their growing bulbs are safe for humans to stand under. At least, I assume so. None of the other workers have sunburns, but they aren’t nearly as pale-skinned as we are.”
Her sister’s laugh did her a world of good to hear.
Darla moved to a bush to fill a basket. It was terrible being kidnapped by the Elth, but now they were both safe. She hadn’t ruined her sister’s life, after all.
Thoughts of Gnaw kept taking over her mind, as well. She hoped he was okay. It had been tempting to try to use the ship’s communications system to contact him, but she’d refrained. It was possible he didn’t want to hear from her. He might even want to forget that they’d ever met.
That thought made her sad. Not everything had been horrible when they’d been locked up together. She missed the feel of him sleeping behind her, his arm wrapped around her middle.
Then there was the sex…
She was embarrassed by the way her body instantly responded to just the memory of Gnaw touching her. He’d taught her that sex could be highly pleasurable. But she couldn’t forget how much he’d resisted her at first. It was possible her aggressiveness overshadowed any good memories for him.
“Dang it,” she muttered.
“Are you okay?”
She forced a smile and turned her head, lying. “I grabbed a berry too hard and almost squished it. These are way more fragile than the ones we grew on Radison.”
“I bet they taste better. Is it allowed if we pop one into our mouths to try?”
Darla laughed. “Let’s not do that yet, since I’m not sure. We’ll see if any are available at lunch in the cafeteria.
