There are self-replicating robots, some controlled by downloaded human personalities. A flyer controlled by download Kyra Davis and carrying download Gabriel Berecz takes off from a landing field with hangers. Currently, Kyra, a former space pilot, is embodied in the flyer whereas Berecz, an ecologist, is inside a fieldwork body with caterpillar treads, telescopic sensors and many arms with diverse hands and is accompanied by "robugs" (p. 424)
Below, and around the planet, nanomachines reduce rock to mineral grains, then robots infuse synthesized humus into the grains. Wind carries organic matter onto the lower mountain slopes where rain mingles it with natural lithosols so that, with the addition of spores and seeds, moss and tussocks grow on the slopes. Terrestrial life will kill the animalcules in the Ionian Ocean. Port Fireball comprises buildings containing industrial and scientific facilities where the Taunus River enters Shelter Bay. Cooling towers rise from the fuel plant on Hydrogen Island. There are buildings, places and names without, as yet, a human community.
Imported earthworms, lacking natural enemies, multiply explosively, destabilizing gradients and causing a landslide from which Kyra barely rescues Berecz. Loosening of the substrate and the resultant chemical changes leach out alkalis, increasing the pH of the soil and thus killing vegetation. This can be corrected by adding appropriate substances to the humus. However:
other poisons will act;
bacteria will mutate;
some DNA will become viruses;
imbalances between species can be lethal;
the Demetrian ecology must become self-maintaining.
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