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Mr. Fuzzy’s delivery to Corazon could have gone smoother, but Cleve takes some comfort from what he learned from the experience. Wolf beetles must have a very strong sense of smell—or whatever Mr. Fuzzy used to detect Cor nearby. Cleve doubts that any kind of dog could have noticed its owner’s scent while still in the elevator. These could be the Chiron equivalent of bloodhounds.
Fortunately, Mr. Fuzzy did not attack or scare anyone on his way to Corazon. However, the mess that Cleve made crashing into the lunch table that Mr. Fuzzy slipped under… that didn’t make Cleve any new friends. Rations and bush bug pieces flew everywhere, but Cleve finally got a hold of Mr. Fuzzy’s collar. “Sorry,” he called to the looks of surprise and disapproval around him.
“What the hell is this?” demanded the woman who just lost her lunch. “You can’t have a wolf beetle tearing up our home!”
“I’m sorry,” Cleve reiterated. “It won’t happen again.”
Probably, it will, though, Cleve reflects, as he heads to the medical center to check on Mariah. Mr. Fuzzy is Corazon’s responsibility now—she was ecstatic to be reunited with her pet in a frenzy of sobbing, hugging, and licking—but Cleve wonders what has become of Mrs. Fuzzy. When he reaches his destination, he soon finds himself in charge of that very wolf beetle once again, something he needs to rectify. Fortunately, Chloe shows up and is willing to take the critter off his hands. Astrid Eke, whose lunch Cleve ruined, is not the only woman in Data Haven that Cleve has made angry. That’s par for the course, though thankfully he’s patched things up enough with Chloe. Hopefully I won’t need anything from Astrid, he thinks.
Once Mariah is sent off to rest, Cleve unloads the rover. He takes his time with his chores, giving the injured man more time to recover. The various fungus samples go to Dr. Citali’s lab, and the new purchases go to Chloe. As he hands each item to Chloe, she inspects it and ticks it off her own list. She thanks him and asks him to let her know the next time he’s going to a dome. After all, she still needs to get more ammunition.
“Will do,” Cleve tells her. “Hey, how’d the bush bugs do? Were they trouble?”
“Most of them have escaped the enclosure,” she informs him.
“Oh, that’s too bad—wait! What do you mean most of them? I only caught two!”
Chloe informs him that she caught a few more and added them to the hutch while he was away. Unfortunately, the bush bugs didn’t end up caring much for the shroomnuts feed. And they proved more nimble than expected. They were able to slip through cracks in the damaged Unity compartment she and Cleve had repurposed to contain them. “From talking with Roze, it seems similar to how a rat operates. They said that’s some animal that can fit through surprisingly small cracks. I’ve never seen one of those, but bush bugs can squish themselves more than you would think.”
“How many are left?” Cleve asks.
“There was one this morning, but that one was cooked for lunch.”
“Okay, okay. Well, at least people are eating them.”
“Yes, but something knocked over the lunch tables, so we just lost a day’s worth of food.”
Cleve may have made a mess in the cafeteria, but that doesn’t mean people need to go hungry. “I think we can eat off the floor,” he says.
Chloe shrugs. “Some will. Some won’t.”
“C’mon,” Cleve says, rolling his eyes.
“Have you seen the floor in there? Do you think this place ever gets cleaned?”
“It’s better than starving! Is there no chore roster? What do people around here do all day?” Certainly some of them are typing away at keyboards like Roze does, but there needs to be some societal upkeep.
“There’s a rusty chore wheel that’s not used anymore. Most people here do nothing,” Chloe says. “And if you want to eat off the floor, Cleve, you’re welcome to.”
“Well, yeah! We should save that stuff. It’s still food. It’s no different from eating outside.”
“I agree,” Chloe tells him. “Or we could try it as feed for bush bugs. If we had a reliable way to feed them, we could try luring them back to the same place, and just pick them off one at a time from there.” But really, they need a regular source of food for the bush bugs, not just table scraps. A native crop would be ideal, one that’s easy to grow. Cleve and Chloe consult Dr. Citali’s xenobotanical research and find a likely candidate, fool’s fungus. It’s not edible for humans—it’s not even really a fungus—but it is perfect for bush bug feed.
Cleve takes on the task of locating some and transplanting it to a full sun area near the hutch. Bush bug scent is already in that area, so that might help them feel comfortable grazing there. Once they get used to having a more palatable regular food source there, the harvesting can resume.
It’s one more chore on Cleve’s long list. Data Haven really needs to get organized, he reflects. Floors aren’t even getting cleaned!
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