“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 plants here are simple ferns that grow no higher than my shoulder.” He trudged up a hillside, not even panting as the path steepened.

“Unfortunately, our grazing animals could not eat the native groundcover at first. Finally the colonists tried genetically modified goats. Those animals could digest the native mosses and grassy sprouts, as long as farmers supplemented their diet.”

Beneto chuckled. “So it’s true that goats can eat anything.”

“Just about,” Talbun said. “And humans can eat the goats, too. For years, goats provided the only fresh meat and milk here. Such products were truly a delicacy, considering that the settlers mostly ate preserved and packaged food that they bought from passing merchants. We relied a great deal on regular supply shipments.”

From the top of the ridge bounding the valley, they looked back to see the orderly patterns of planted farmlands.