Chapter 2
The nostalgic glow of instilling a bit of healthy respect into new cadets, along with a vital refresher about drone maintenance, faded before Rob and Jim finished inspecting the first five crops. Only Earth species failing would have been bad enough. But they found evidence of the same lack of fruit in the violet protein-rich cassamond fruit from Sitendra 8, pumpkin-sized blue citrus from Piddo 2, and rich, starchy gipla trees.
All perfectly healthy and normal plants, in fields kilometers away from each other. All loaded with multicolored blossoms that fell with very little fruit behind.
Jim tried to push the chill now deep in his gut aside as he landed the hoverpod. The sprawling apple orchard could have been on Earth itself judging by historical photos and primitive videos.
