When we prepared for this mission we didn't pack any clothes. We didn't pack the scanners or microscopes or other instruments you might normally want on a field expedition. We didn't pack any tents or blankets or stoves or gear you might take camping. We didn't pack gliders or rovers or other vehicles. We didn't even bring shuttles capable of landing us on this planet. We traveled light. We packed information.
We only brought the plans, schematics and blueprints necessary to build everything we would need, and the few machines we needed to build them. Not just fabs to make blue dots, gold dots, silver jacks and black chips, but much more sophisticated machines capable of building fabs for the raw materials of our everyday material existence. We also brought a few consumables, enough to bootstrap the process, but our frugal mass budget was only possible because we intended to make what we needed when we got here. Our mission is to live off the land.
Most importantly, other than ourselves, we didn't bring anything alive. The first expedition to Rook's Pawn -- back when the planet was still called GJ 1261/B -- brought seeds, seedlings, and embryos of domestic and farm animals. They knew they couldn't live on the native plants and needed to create a biological cycle that could sustain humans. Simple in principle and yet devilishly difficult in an exotic ecosystem, it has left as many regrets as successes. We weren't going to make those same mistakes.
Unlike Rook's Pawn, however, the biology of Sigma 957 can support human life. All the essential amino acids are available, and there are plentiful naturally-occurring sources of food energy. Life here is generally slightly more alkaline than life on Earth, so our relatively acidic systems can readily absorb whatever we might consume. Our acidic chemistry also protects us from parasitic mutts, biting animals and some microbes. They take one bite and run screaming from our too-sour blood.
But despite what others might say it's not a paradise. Traci's group released their first consensus report on edible plants yesterday, and the picture is actually a bit grim. All six of the best food plants are loaded with deadly alkaloids, some bad enough to cause blindness if you were to get their fluids in your eyes. The most mild is present in my region -- in fact the Tanzen gather them and cook them in the coals of their fire pits, where washing the ash out probably helps to cleanse them. I can't produce sodium hydroxide in any quantity with the energy I have, so I'm left with the second option. Boiling. Long, long boiling.
Yum.
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