Chapter 8 - Naming

Rose: [Well, I said octopus so you could understand it but it doesn't have a single speck of DNA related to an octopus or a human, according to your memories even an 'octopus' can't be out of the water for more than 30 minutes, but here we are and she seems perfectly fine after hours out, just don't get too comfortable okay? You better not judge things by your planet's standards, even female and male okay?]

Erik: "...what do you mean by that last part?"

Rose: [I will put an example from your planet so you get it. A 'seahorse', it's the female that puts the eggs inside the male until they hatch, and some females eat the males after the act in other species, so yeah, you never know, so don't get too comfortable around her]

Erik rolled his eyes: "I know, I just want her to hunt for me, it's too dangerous to make it all alone, and her tribe could help a lot if I pull this right"

Meanwhile, the scout had been playing with her backpack and observing him mumble to himself. She wondered if he was trying to communicate with her, but that's not how her tribe communicated, his sounds were strange..., she couldn't understand, so she grabbed the notebook and drew a spear, pointing at it to make her point clear.

Rose: [Seems like she wants her spear]

Erik: "Yeah, I can clearly see that..."

They went to the synthesizer, and he took the spear with him to the garage, and the scout following him. She seemed relieved to see water and got inside, her tubicles pumping water in and out of her neck. Erik gave her the spear, with the tracker on her spear and cameras on the backpack, he would always know where she is in a radius of 12 KM with no satellites from now on.

They opened the hatches, and she reluctantly went away, as they closed them again.

Erik: "Sigh... finally, the pressure was killing me", Erik says while slumping on the sofa.

Rose: [Well, now we will have to wait until tomorrow to see if it worked]

Erik: "Yeah, but first... I will clean the sofa... it's mucky and sticky..." he cleaned the sofa that luckily was waterproof, and then took a hot bath. After the bath, he installed underwater cameras in the garage, the garage's entrance, and inside the pool, for the rest of the day, he recorded a video diary with his findings until that moment just in case.

On the next day, he picked sludge mud he previously dumped there and screened it in one bucket, just the fine stuff.

He picked lots of seashells and washed them, baked them until they were white, and dumped them in a bucket with fresh water, turning them into lime. He then washed 10 buckets of mud, and added lime to the mix until the ph levels were correct, then he asked Rose to print some big rectangular floating pots 3x5 meters long, and filled them with the mix, planting garlic, potatoes, and some smaller other pots he just filled with water and a bit of washed mud for nutrients, carrots and lettuce seeds intending to make a hydroponic setup. He also printed a divider for the other 70% of the pool to have it clean, as it could be used to maybe raise some small edible animals that tolerated freshwater in the future. He then set up all the algae reactors into bigger versions Rose printed, filling the corners, they would produce Chlorella pills automatically as well as oxygen, now if he only had some fungal strains that consume oxygen and generate CO2 it would be perfect but he didn't have any wood to grow the fungus samples on, so he would need other sources or biomass.

Erik: "Rose, is there anything close to wood on this planet?"

Rose: [Yeah, but you won't reach them alive, they grow either far from here or too deep for your actual body]

Erik: "Hmm, then what about another source of cellulose?"

Rose: [Why not the algae you picked the other day?]

Erik: "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, too much stuff to do..."

Erik took out the algae, and the snails, and took them to the synthesizer scanner.

Rose: [Hmm the algae contain chemicals that could kill you, but they should be edible once boiled for some hours, the snails are pretty much the same but worst, they contain actual paralyzing numbing poison]

Erik: "Oh, paralyzing poison! that will be really useful, either for anesthesia eliminating pain and sensation or for capturing specimens, can you make me a dart speargun?"

Rose: [sure, printing already]

Erik: "Great, that will be really useful, by the way, any small animals that could survive in the pool water that I could raise like prawns?"

Rose: [Well, you could try with eel-like animals, but osmosis will kill most of them, this is an oceanic ark after all...]

Erik: "Hmmm I get it okay, guess I can just wash mud and shovel it in myself, now can you make some red and blue UV lights scanning mine?"

Rose: [Printing...]

Erik: "Great, with those the plants will grow way faster and also heat the pool for a bit of evaporation, once I have enough plant waste I could also use the worm eggs to set up a mulch processor and generate soil, give them the leftovers from food too"

With the food-producing setup established and already working he didn't have more to do for now, so he took a bath, and just watched some movies together with Rose. He also checked the octowoman scout cameras after that, she seemed to be stalking a big fish with her spear.

Erik: "Now that I think about it, she either needs a name, or I need to think of a way for me to learn her name... "

Rose: [What if they don't have 'names' but hand signals or clicking sounds?, it would be impossible to reproduce for your vocal system, just give her a name like you called me Rose, a beautiful flower, I kinda like this name now (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)ﻭ ]

Erik: "octopus names... Kraken would be funny, but no... needs to be girly... what about... 'Inky'?"

Rose: [...Like from Ink?, she releases poison, not Ink though...]

Erik: "Well, who cares, it's easy to remember at least"

Rose: [...(¯―¯٥)]

Erik: "Inky she is then, I will go to sleep, wake me up if something urgent happens"

Rose: [Will do ヽ(^o^)/, sleep well~ ]

--- 6 hours later ---

Rose: [Erik... Erik wake up...]

Erik was sleeping soundly: "hmmm..."

Rose: [UP I SAID!]

Erik: "w-what's happening?!"

Rose: [Inky came back, and she was chased by that crab you threw out yesterday, and it almost took her prey, but managed to cut one of her tentacles, I let her inside the garage, she's injured hurry!]

Erik: "Okay, I will get ready, put the suit on me!"

The suit then just put itself on him the moment he stepped out of bed.

Erik: "By the way, if I think of an image... can you show it on the garage screen so I don't need to draw?"

Rose: [Sure, I can if you focus your thoughts ( ͡° ᴗ ͡°)]

Erik: "Okay, show her this I'm thinking, me carrying her to the bathtub and applying a bandage to her ripped-off limb and caressing her head, that should be a calm thing, and can you also fill the bathtub with filtered and warm salty water? we need to keep her temperature stable"

Rose: [Okay~ (✿◠‿◠) ]