Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [180]
Corvus Landing was a young, geologically quiescent planet with a generally mild climate and minimal native vegetation. Even the seas were shallow, and the landforms were smooth, with nothing more extreme than hilly plains.
Dazzled by the clear sunlight without the shade of a dense forest canopy, Beneto drank in the details, felt the sunlight tingle his exposed green skin. Through the information he'd learned via telink, he knew that fierce storms occasionally whipped the land with hurricane-force winds that crossed the open plains. Tapping into memories related by Talbun, Beneto experienced one of these tempests secondhand, seen through the eyes of the local worldforest grove.
In consideration of the weather, Colony Town's shelters were low aerodynamic structures. The agricultural grid of cereal grains was able to withstand the harsh storms. The resilient grasses always sprang back when the sky cleared and the sun returned.
Beneto had no qualms whatsoever about being here. Even the small tree he carried seemed delighted to reach its new home.
When Talbun came to greet him, his skin dark and decorated with a hundred tattoos of his impressive life accomplishments, Beneto felt as if he had known the aged man all his life. Talbun embraced the young man with skinny arms. "I thank you for coming, Beneto. And the trees thank you." He touched the small new treeling from Theroc, as if greeting it.
Beneto smiled. "The Corvus Landing colonists would not want to be without a green priest. You have spoiled them."
Talbun laughed. Even his gums were dark green. "The settlers don't use my services all that much, but having access to telink and the immediate news I bring gives their colony a certain status in the Hansa."
"Ah, status. I am the second son of the rulers of Theroc. Do you think they'll be able to handle so much importance?"
Talbun led his younger comrade away from the colony's small spaceport, which was not much more than a paved clearing used as a flea market and meeting place when no ships were due to land.
"They'll get over it soon enough, and then you'll want to go back to your fancy fungus-reef city. Why would you want to be a monk, when you can live as a king?" Talbun was joking, but he seemed truly concerned about the possibility. "I am leaving them in your care, Beneto."
"Don't worry about that. My first and truest dedication is to the trees. I want to live here, to read to the trees, to help the grove flourish. I won't flinch from getting my hands dirty, if I need to help the colonists. I am just grateful to be serving a valid purpose."
Talbun walked in contemplative silence for a few moments, then turned back with a genuine smile on his dark face. "I know, Beneto. Everything I've learned about you from the worldtrees tells me that my grove and the colonists are safe in your hands." He increased his pace. "Let us go quickly, before the mayor and a thousand colonists want to welcome you, introduce themselves, and tell you stories about me."
"Plenty of time for that later," Beneto said. "For now, after being so long in space, I would rather see the trees you have planted."
With a spring in his step, the aged priest took Beneto away from the concentric circles of low buildings. Talking comfortably, the two walked along a dirt footpath toward a shallow extended valley where the expanding grove grew in the Corvus sunlight. Beneto could sense the yearning trees even before he drew close. It was like being reunited with an old friend.
"When the first colonists came here, Corvus Landing was a blank slate ready to be converted and farmed," Talbun told him. "Hansa surveys had shown that there was mineral wealth in the northern latitudes, with no native forests to get in the way of strip-mining. Much of the ground was bare of vegetation and composed of exposed rock."
"I saw some native groundcover from the skies," Beneto said.
"That's an interconnected hairy moss, not even grass. It reproduces by spreading and breaking off shoots. The largest indigenous