Chapter 956 956 New Adaptation
While the test results were being processed, Nico was getting very excited about this new adaptation that she was studying. She had the feeling that it was going to mesh very well with the other adaptations that she had built into her biomechanical body, and the adaptation was for far more than simple skin colour, as she had first suspected.
Not only would their colouration adapt to the surroundings, but they had been carefully genetically engineered so that their internal organs would adapt as well.
Which baffled the Hunters. If they adapted so well, they should have been able to survive the pollution clouds that had consumed their world in the past. But the population suggested otherwise.
It was possible that only this group had received the treatment or that each group that was put into hiding had received a different one, and most of them had been failures that had slowly killed or reduced the fertility of the recipients.
The possibilities were so varied that without exploring every other location on the planet and searching for evidence, they couldn't make a positive conclusion.
But that wasn't on the schedule. They had their answers, and they had helped the survivors of this dead world out a little bit, which was their moral obligation, even if it wasn't a legal obligation. So, they waited for the results to come in.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. We have the results. According to this, your bodies should have no problems digesting and processing this berry, assuming that you all share the same traits as the sample we took.
If you are all from different families, we can test you all in the next few minutes, and that should ensure that the berries won't be poisonous to any of you, but from what we can tell, they are perfectly safe for your consumption." The Team Leader informed the aliens.
They looked in envy at the scanning machine in her hand, as it could so easily and safely identify food sources, then they silently scattered and returned a few minutes later with likely-looking fruits, roots, seeds and leaves.
"You want all of these tested, do you? That shouldn't be an issue. Give us just a second and a blood sample from everyone, and we will get the tests completed."
That was multiple verifications for the genome sample that they had sent back to the base, which would certainly make Nico and Khan happy, and a fairly wide variety of local foods that might be edible.
This was a farm, so it made sense that most of the things growing nearby would be food products, even after all this time. The last harvest would have simply gone wild after there was nobody there to harvest it, and that would have been the only thing in the area to grow, so whatever could germinate without supervision would have remained the dominant plant life.
"All of these are safe for consumption. I can't say that they'll all taste good, but these roots are all non-toxic, as are the berries and most of the seeds. The others aren't toxic but have very little nutritional value, so unless they are spices, you might want to skip on harvesting those ones." The Team Leader explained.
"Thank you, visitor. Tell me, are all aliens as friendly as you are?" The first man they made contact with asked.
"No, not even a little bit. Most of them would colonize your planet, change all the plant life and then wipe you out without a second thought. We just happened to see a relic of your past here and got curious." The Team Leader explained.
It was for the best if they didn't start working on contacting the outside world. It might lead them to the quarantine zone array, and that would be a whole new mess if they thought that the Myceloids might be friends.
"What are you going to do next?" One of the alien women asked.
"We are going to spend a few hours helping out other survivor groups without making ourselves known, and then we are going to return to the planet we came here from. There is a war there between our species and a very hostile one, and they always need more strength.
That is why I recommend that you don't go looking for other species. You might not like what you find. Fortunately, we are not interested in your world, so we will make sure your species survives before we go.
Who knows, maybe in a few hundred years, you will be thriving again and on a new path toward comfortable lives that doesn't involve stripping the planet of resources or polluting the atmosphere to the point that it chokes you to death."
[Should I get on that? Our shuttle can repair most of the solar panels and the wiring damage, and then I can head off to help the other survivor groups the same way.] The Shuttle Pilot suggested.
Khan considered that for a little while. [Make them new lights for the dome as well. Say, fifty of them packed in durable, shelf-stable packaging. That will let them revamp their home as they see fit if they don't think that the natural light is enough.]
They wouldn't interfere any further with the aliens than replacing what they already had working so that they didn't cause new issues with the beleaguered species, but bringing all their lights and solar panels back online would be a nice gesture.
Their bodies had provided the hunters with valuable information for the next generation of Hunter Suits, as well as Nico's own body modifications, so they felt that they owed them at least that much.
[Understood. I will get the systems of the inhabited biodomes back online and give them some natural light if needed.] The Pilot replied, then raced off to finish the task while the Team Leader removed a bed sheet from her flat space storage and placed it on the ground in front of her.
"If we each take a corner, we can carry many times your body weight in food back into the biodome. Just be sure to clean it off well if it comes from the ground. I don't know how the soil here will interact with the soil in the dome.
There is a well beside the ruins of the house, and the sensors say that it is clean water safe to drink. I have a bucket and a rope, so you can draw some up to wash the root vegetables and drink." She informed the group.
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