Elder Cultivator

The time to rejoice had come, because Second Gift had successfully completed its journey! Part of its journey, really. Only the first bit. But they were going near another star- their route carefully calculated to bring them into its warmth for a short time while still retaining the momentum to leave the system.

At the speed they were going, they would get a whole half an hour where nobody had to provide sunlight for the planet. That was… not that long. Good thing for Bear Hug that they didn’t need to sleep. Or at least not all at once. There were periods of rest required even for an algae like them, but parts of them could cycle out.

Humans weren’t going to get much sleep in half an hour either, but it was still an important time. That was because merely moving through the system would help Second Gift stabilize its natural energy, which had been without any surrounding energy for nearly a decade.

Approaching the star was the easiest period for the ships with them as well, as they wouldn't have to go far to replenish their own energy stores for their portion of the planetary warming efforts. So for them, things had actually been gradually growing easier and would soon become more difficult.

Things had been hard, Bear Hug wasn’t going to lie. However, the best part about being cultivators was that they got better at things when they did it more. Everyone was now more capable than they had been when everything finally started moving a decade before.

From the right angle, Second Gift itself might even be filled with a greater vitality. Bear Hug couldn’t squint, but that was a thing humans did to see better. Or worse sometimes, when they thought that would help for some reason.

Technically, they’d have almost half a day where a measurable amount of sunlight from the star they were passing would reach Second Gift. The intention was to manipulate that from the surrounding area, using the shell of ice as a lens. That is, for people who knew what a lens was. Bear Hug was going to spend several hours talking to people. That was a thing they did anyway, but it was harder for both parties when under high strain. Bear Hug couldn’t speak without manipulating energy- either for the energy language or to make and comprehend sounds.

While Bear Hug would have liked to speak to everyone, that was potentially impossible. They’d been trying, but keeping track of everyone was already hard enough. Mostly, they ended up talking to the main representatives of different groups. Bear Hug would make sure they passed on their words.

The goal here was the empowerment of people. They were not even that close to the border yet, and then they would have to go another decade beyond the border before swapping with the next group. It was important that they could be successful on the first half to inspire the second.

“Good job, More-Than-A-Hundred-Stars!” Bear Hug said to people of the Order. One hundred was a lot, but there were far more people than that. “You did so good keeping Second Gift from freezing and we barely even caused any forest fires or weather imbalances!”

Just a few of those. Some people had tried too hard to evenly heat the planet, which sounded correct. However, they needed to allow some leeway for the poles to retain their relative level of heat. That was how the planet operated. But it was fine because they’d fixed that issue within the first year and most of the species had survived.

People in ships were harder to get to, but Bear Hug got Erin to broadcast their words to everyone. “Thanks for scooping up lots of sunlight! We couldn’t bring it all in ourselves. The good news is we’ve improved the leakiness of the ice shell. Though we’ll need to redo some of it after this, probably.”

Lots of people had nice things to say in return. Bear Hug wasn’t sure if nice words actually made them more powerful, but it felt like it which was all that mattered! Bear Hug was going to stay invigorated for this whole journey, because everyone was so nice!

“People from Bounty, isn’t moving planets cool?” Bear Hug didn’t really know what else to say. “Thank you for your expertise. Also, thank you to the Akrysians, and Meep in particular. Your fungal expertise really helped us balance ecosystems.” Lots of Akrysians burrowed. More than humans, anyway. That let them work on different layers of things.

Who else was there? The Grasping Willows, of course.

“Thank you for making big trees!” Bear Hug said. “They’re mostly very happy!”

There were a lot of other groups. The strangest ones were the people from Aipra. They seemed the least concerned about the possibility of the planet freezing over. Not that they weren’t working hard to prevent it, but their expertise was provided with a sort of grim sincerity. Like they thought the planet was going to freeze and that they could help run things from there.

It would certainly be better if at least some underground species- fungus, algae, mosses, and all sorts of other things- survived. Insulated by the surface of the planet itself, it was a far more viable task than keeping the whole planet alive. But it was also for quitters.

Bear Hug still said nice things, though. “Without your energy capture expertise, Second Gift would have probably fallen apart already, drained of too much power lost to space. And that would be doubly sad. Enjoy this first holiday, and thank you for your plans!”

Bear Hug didn’t actually run everything. In fact, most people didn’t ask them whether something should be done. And that was good, because humans were good at coordinating and Bear Hug was an algae. One of those things was not used to organizing many many people and solving for crazy problems. Like, if they were a little bit off on their angle they could fall into the star they were approaching.

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Obviously that wouldn’t happen. Paradise would bump them back on track first. But when the original plans had been made, Second Gift- except it didn’t even really have a name- was just going to be shoved along a single path and only lightly monitored from then.

Humans could predict how all the systems were going to move around so far ahead of time. Bear Hug thought that was great, and that they should handle all of that. Because Bear Hug was trying to be a star and it was hard.

But not for a few hours. Not even a little bit. They were barely even absorbing sunlight with the bodies assigned to that task. They were just going to relax and talk to people and-

Wow, they sure went past that star fast. Time to get back to work.

-----

“I swear it’s actually going to get there,” Bear Hug said to Ratna. “And your people can probably read so many things that humans wrote about how to be good stars. Probably. I don’t know because reading is hard without eyes. You agree with me, right, Chidi?”

Chidi nodded. “Reading is not meant for those without sight.”

“And the part where Second Gift will make it to the upper realms fine!”

“I have not observed that personally, so I have no opinion.”

At least this time, Ratna was on a visit to the Scarlet Alliance. So Bear Hug popping in out of nowhere was less of a surprise. Her precise location was still supposed to be somewhat secret, but any number of individuals could have revealed sufficient information for Bear Hug to find her.

“I did take your words seriously,” Ratna commented. Having people train to create useful artificial sunlight wasn’t a complete waste of time even if this particular project had failed. “I am aware of the other support you have gathered as well. Thank you.”

“That’s good. I tried to make sure all the humans and not-humans talked to each other,” Bear Hug said. “But I don’t have enough of me to keep up with all of the things. I won’t be as good at being sunlight, either…”

Bear Hug could cover several times as much area as at the start of Second Gift’s movements, but in the upper realms the number of bodies they possessed was relatively fewer. Just a dozen or so.

They had been training hard to be able to produce the same results with their abilities as their bodies in the lower realms. Upper energy was more potent, but Bear Hug’s Assimilation had been partially with Second Gift. Hopefully that wouldn’t result in terrible problems when it reached the upper realms, but they had other connections anyway. First to Klar, then many places that were friendly to plants in the Alliance.

Their insights were good, but not equally applicable to both types of energy. With time and energy required to increase in body count, Bear Hug hadn’t made as much progress as they would like, but at least they would be relatively strong and starting fresh. The mental fatigue of all of Bear Hug in the lower realms was being held by that part of them. Not really on purpose, but it was tied to the natural energy they bore with that side of the network.

-----

“I’m impressed,” Anton admitted to Erin. “Granted, there weren’t many unforeseen dangers here in the lower realms, but at this point it’s pretty guaranteed to survive the entire lower realms part of the trip.”

“Just like you said. I didn’t expect it to be true.”

“I told you,” Anton said. “You just have to believe in people, and they’ll make it true. But actually… this is the easy half of things. Because in the upper realms they won’t just be battling the harsh environment of space.”

Erin nodded. “Last time, there were quite a number of attackers. Ratna has secured more defenses, but any foes will likely have had much longer to prepare.”

“It’s a shame,” Anton said. “I’ll only be able to cover the first leg of its journey. Maybe we should have held off another couple centuries or so for the Tides.”

Erin laughed. “Why not stuff all our problems together at once. Though perhaps it might be a worthy distraction. If we could have timed it such that the upper realms had to choose between invasion and going after Second Gift…”

“It would be a bit too much like using our allies there as bait, though. And while we avoid keeping a strict tally of debt, our allies in the upper realms don’t owe us so much to face all that trouble. Others certainly owe greater debts, but they’ll try to avoid paying.”

“Are we still considering striking into the upper realms?”

“Not as a whole,” Anton shook his head. “Just certain factions. The Shining Cooperative has latched onto the idea to some extent. But I personally see few reasons to take a disadvantageous battlefield. Either they will come to us… or we can finally be rid of them. They won’t be capable of infiltrating the lower realms in another cycle, unless they simply don’t need to. That’s my opinion, anyway.”

“Too bad. I thought you liked terraforming.”

Anton just gave her a look. “I suppose I do, to some extent.”

“We could have gotten into the planetary trading market,” Erin said. “Creating custom planets imbued with the essence of the lower realms.”

“Hmm. Only works if you have trading partners. And it’s a bit much to do regularly.”

“One per century. Besides, if you trade planets back and forth you don’t lose anything.”

“That’s not a terrible idea. But I think it would take greater fools than myself to seriously consider it. I don’t think I shall mention it to them.”

“True,” Erin said. “The uniqueness of our planets, and the way they are naturally arranged, is quite pleasant. Even if they appear the same on the surface, there’s often more than meets the eye.”

“I didn’t realize you saw so many places. What with Paradise sticking to a relatively small area.”

“Even a few systems is a sufficient breadth to come to those conclusions. Besides, he doesn’t need me there most of the time. I do at least a little traveling on my own. The sect does just fine. Never as much as you, though.”

“Mmn. I should spend more time on certain aspects rather than just passing by the planets, though. I’m sure I could afford to be slower every once in a while.”

Anton was pleased his bet with Bear Hug was coming to fruition. Not befriending them to begin with- it was hardly a bet to make a friend. But this recent business could have resulted in great disappointment. Hopefully, the second half of things would pan out. Vandale would be there to help it along, at least.