The locals do. In fact, the locals have what looks (from a distance) very much like cows, sheep, and goats.



Two steps. First, you have to find one. This is as simple as entering a set of search criteria into the computer. Then, you need to wake him up; this is a fairly straightforward procedure, and technically Arkady could sneak in and do it all himself, but it might be polite to discuss the matter with the Captain first and obtain permission. At the very least, it would prevent some awkward questions later.

Not quite what I had expected. At least we didn't find a Zemoch Spy aspect, though.

Think we should let him stay and learn from us, in exchange for us learning whatever we can from him? If he knows magic and can teach it to us, that'd be absolutely amazing.

Never mind magic; Arkady is just this side of desperate for a lesson or two in local theology. Powers roam this world; and being profoundly ignorant of them doesn't strike him as a good long term plan.

I'm not sure the computer would make much headway on 'pious' or 'high mystery level' as search criteria. 'Not a schmuck' may also cause a bit of electronic confusion. Where so and so is, that should be no problem. Just as a starting point, am I right that Arkady is acquainted with all of the Catholic clergy on board?

The local gods are also good to know. You could ask the knights about it as well, but a scholar like Zalasbra might be able to tell you more.

I would hope so. Our two Church knights didn't know Piper from a hole in the wall, Zalasbra is personally acquainted with her.

He does, and he can. Have a few decades to spare?

And then, of course, there's the question of whether or not he'd be willing to. Styric mages are extremely secretive about how to do things.



Now, that might be something that he can do in a reasonable time frame.



Arkady is personally fairly well acquainted with most of them. There's one or two that he doesn't know much more than their name and country of origin; but by and large, he's able to consult his own memory for not-a-schmuckness.



I'm surprised no-one's asked yet how far back that acquaintance goes.

I'm assuming a number of decades.

Given what might be available, I think the best Piper might be getting here is cream with a bunch of fruit and perhaps some honey. Unless someone has been playing games with the flow of time in the hydroponics tanks, in which case there might actually be sugar beets available to work with now. I'm idly curious to see which way that's going to go.

That would actually be pretty funny.

"I'm sorry, we don't have any more sugar to make ice cream with."
"You do now."

I'm unsure if the locals would even have sugar crops available, but if they did we could get some small amount of ice cream I think. Sugar and spices are something we should definitely look into growing soon, at any rate. A lot of them have nutrients that'll help bolster the nutritional value of our meals and they help to inhibit growth of pathogens in food so we'll be less likely to be made sick by spoiled food. Also they'd make an excellent trade good.

Would it be fair to say that we have genetically engineered plants that produce spices you'd normally get from trees? Like, say, a potato plant whose tubers have cinnamon in them or a peanut plant that produces cocoa seeds instead of peanuts?

I mean we have a genetically engineered plant that produces high quality printing plastic don't we?

Why would you want that? You've got the seeds for the trees already, what benefit would cinnamon potatoes have over cinnamon trees?

Growing times that don't exceed a decade or three. Also the fact that we'd be able to grow them in areas that are anything less than tropical.

I mean if we got to the point we could genetically engineer a plant to grow plastic that can be used in industrial grade tools, what's to say scientists haven't created other kinds of plants to send with us?

You can make bioplastic from cornstarch or soy. The genetic engineering in question here is just a plant that produces somewhat more cornstarch or soy and it makes slightly better plastic after being suitably processed.

That seems several steps less advanced than your proposal...

Ah. Yeah, that does seem a fair bit less complex than what I'd been imagining. Fair enough.

Push comes to shove we can synthesize most spice flavors. But if it comes to that there are plenty of fairly fast growing spices; ginger, black pepper (a vine), vanilla (an orchid), or capsaicin peppers come to mind. And of course there's the herbs.