An ecos was a single genetic organism, creating within itself all the diverse parts of an ecosystem, spread over large areas-in some cases, dominating entire continents.Įach ecos was ruled, the surveyors had theorized, by what they called a seed mistress, or queen. No scion could breed by itself they did not act alone. The first surveyors, in the single day they had spent on the planet, had determined that within certain zones, all apparently individual organisms, called scions, in fact belonged to a larger organism, which they had called an ecos. There were no plants or animals as such on Lamarckia. The Dalgesh report-by the original surveyors-had called them “arborid scions.” And this was not a forest, but a silva. A drop of translucent white fluid oozed from the gash, which quickly closed when I lifted my hand. At my touch, the bark parted to form a kind of stoma, red and pink pulp within. I reached out my hand to stroke the smooth black curve of a trunk. Then they withdrew altogether with thin, high chirps. The extrusions opened and closed, twitching at the end of each cycle. They smelled like bananas, spicy as cinnamon. Rich aromas wafted from nearby extrusions resembling broad purple flowers, with fleshy centers. The air smelled of fresh water, grapes, tea leaves, and a variety of odors I can only describe as skunky-sweet. Somewhere below, hidden in the tangle of smooth black trunks, huge round leaves, and purple fans, the ferry landing was supposed to be.And inland a few hundred meters along a dirt and gravel path, both hidden in the dense pack, the village of Moonrise. Not a human in sight, not a curl of smoke or rise of structure. For as far as the eye could see-what Darrow Jan Fima had called Elizabeth’s Zone, one creature, one thing.įrom where I stood, at the top of a rise overlooking the broad, dark olive Terra Nova River, Lamarckia hardly seemed violated. In fact, the forest inhabited the sky: tethered gas-filled balloons ascended from the distant stands of black-trunked trees into thin shredded-ribbon clouds.Įverything glowed with serene yellow light and brilliant blood-hued life. Above the hills, sky beckoned crystal blue with mottled patches of more red and purple, as if reflecting the forest. Immense trees like the skeletons of cathedral towers punctuated the forest every few hundred meters, pink crowns perched atop four slender vaulting legs, rising high over the rest of the forest.
Red and purple forest pushed over low boxy hills, fading to pink and lavender as the hills receded toward the horizon. And tail rushed upon me I sucked it in with frantic need.
Behind me, a dense enclosure of more black trunks. I stood on the crest of a low hill, between thick black trunks smooth as glass. Late morning, early evening: I could not judge. The sun hung two hand-spans above the horizon.
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