Chapter 12
Even with the fastest Ajaran shuttle and processing available, and all the bribes Tana and Dal Peyones could pay, nearly a week passed before results came back for the invasive pink gunk.
Those days were the longest of Calvin’s life.
The plurapods located many beds of the stuff soon after the planet-wide emergency went into effect. Stalks as big around as Calvin’s thigh rooted into the seabed, sending floating, waving masses sometimes hundreds of meters toward the surface. They could tell everywhere boats had passed through by the gaps in what looked like a towering underwater forest.
By the time they returned the next day with human inspectors, including Calvin and Tana, every damaged stalk had regrown nearly all the way to the surface again. Masses of what looked like sogg
