As warmness met the hands of coldness, the forces danced a couple of pirouettes together, finally blending, forming white fog as their heritage. The first law of thermodynamics was in complete action. The door, through which the group had just stepped onto the sand-grass mat, had been a true cork of a vacuum flask. Beyond there, sweet warmness was ahead, making every cold-shiver or cankering vanish from anyone's bones.
More onomatopoetic expressions fluttered in the air. Those 'oohs' and 'aahs' adored the sight hidden in this unknown pot of nature. The awe-inspired travellers had stepped over the so-called threshold of the door, now in disbelief getting their sight organs used to the oddness. Like a deep cauldron, indeed, the mythical valley spread beneath them, as the heroes were now standing up there, on a kind of welcome-doormat-cliff. It was as if a dead volcano had been cut open, as steep stone walls surrounded the pot from every side. Up there, they left only a small, round cap for the sunlight to crawl in. But only a weak streak of that sun's by-product approached that far. Actually, the valley had its own illuminators. Saltpetre-type phosphorating substance was gleaming from the lava-stone walls. The impression was, as if the whole complex had bathed in a certain dusk eternally.
The vegetation, on the first glance, resembled a jungle. All kinds of lush plants were growing there on the bottom, and upper, as the explorers had already witnessed. No voices of animal life were heard, though. Who knew, maybe all the species on Isgurda were as silent as the yetis... but hopingly not as deadly. Booster, his eyes wide of veneration, tapped to the edge of the cliff, being the first one to utter something else but nasal noises.
"D-Do you guys know where we are? Hot rockets! This is the f-forbidden valley! It's so beautiful!" he cheered.
"Yeah... welcome to Jurassic Park. Better keep your senses clear before a T-Rex jumps in front of ya from the bushes", XR spoiled his mood. With those words, he made Warp chuckle,
"You know what, tuna can? I was gonna say just the same, only referring to the sequel. 'Welcome to the Lost World!'"
"Ohh, but they made a third part to that film, too!" the robot began to wisecrack, nevertheless soon cut short by Zurg.
"Capital! I believe we have gaped at the scene long enough, so that we shall be ready to climb down the hillside. Soon the night falls, and everyone needs rest. I know that I am full of zeal -Aah, that word has a glorious Z-letter in it!- to find the herb, but even a superlative man like me needs rest."
"Righto. I guess someone's brains need also a li'l lullaby after such efforts", Darkmatter babbled to Zarah, who pushed his arm playfully with an elbow.
While descending the downward slope, the botanist ripped one small grass with him. He was indeed keen on to know about the scientific side of the vegetation. Namely, normal photosynthesis would have not worked in such circumstances at all as were in the volcanic pot. Light was sparse, and the saltpetre would definitely not work as a spring for any photosynthesis-advancing reactions. Thus, while the others did their small talk about movie references and other as important things, Na-Vetta cooked his own theories.
"These plants have the green colour, so they must produce chlorophyll or relevant in a way or another. Maybe they use some kind of advanced chemosynthesis... or then some very subtle form of photosynthesis..." he kept mumbling in an unclear tone.
"Well, isn't the most significant thing the point that those are like alive?" XR yawned to this botanical babble. He was in the serious need of some oil and battery recharging, and gradually got a bit bored that no camp was settled, yet.
"Of course your artificial 'intelligence' cannot comprehend how remarkable finding this valley is concerning botany. We have found completely new kinds of species, new kinds of energy production forms, and you dare to say so!" the man was expressly offended. "This is one of the great summits of my career, to be able to testify the existence of something like this, and you..."
"Don't care about ranger XR, Mister Na-Vetta", Mira put her apologies in the middle, "He just thinks about himself, always."
"What? I think about myself? I think of you often, Princess, in addition that the more beautiful gender is the constant object of my profound thoughts. And didn't I just help you all open up that sealed gate? Oh the gratitude, oh the gratitude, as I at first sacrificed myself on the altar of linguistics and now I receive only cold words as my prize...?" the android whined, getting Nova roll her eyes even more.
Thus the bottom of the pit was finally reached. The marquees were soon put up, and a small plasma fence put around the site. No one was sure, what might be moving in the bushes, praying every by-passer. Zora regretted, that he had gone on the route with such a small company, but there were not much other options. Four men had been lost this far, and those who were left outside the cave, truly had their hands filled with work, already. They had the guarding of the pack animals, taking care of the further equipment and so on. They were now informed about the findings and that the aim was at least partly achieved. Still, no sure contemplations were there, how many days Zurg and his escorts had to reside aloof from the main encamping. The valley was not quite large, but finding some half-unknown plant in there, was like searching for a neutrino in a pile of neutrons.
However, The Peregrinator's Journal would be there to help at least a bit. Whereas it had not described how to enter the secrets, it on the other hand had rhymes and literary pieces that sung about tha-grydda. As the fatigued wayfarers sat at the campfire, eating their rations, Lightyear screwed up his eyes and studied the holo-book. Yet, there were disappointments to face, too.
"Quasars! How much I ever try to flip this epos, it has not any picture or drawing of the herb!" he spat discontent.
"So, what does it say in overall about the thing? Are we supposed to find like some King of the Flowers?" Warp gave a glance at him.
"No. There is this piece that says 'The most unpretentious shall be the most precious'. Hence we are to expect something that may look like a humble weed."
"Yes, and it grows in symbiosis with this one mushroom. So, that combination is one remarkable point to observe", the botanist added.
"Oh, well... tomorrow will show if we're gonna get friends with the bulrush..." XR threw lazily in. Actually, everyone was quite tired, so the campers eagerly put their heads onto the pillows. The grumbling robot with Booster was left on the night watch. And nothing indicated to happen among the grasses in the dark hours.
The first day in the volcanic jungle was quite much nothing but snuffing around in the tussocks. The round pit had a radius of a few kilometres, but the vegetation in it was very thick, like too many yucca palms would have been put to grow in the same jardinière. The pioneers used machetes to cut the liana, in order to advance somehow. The eyes had to be kept following the soil, since tha-grydda did not grow in trees. Not alike in a normal Tellurian jungle, where the ground layer is usually consisting only of dead leaves and rotten trunks, here the grasses grew wild even in the murkiest shades of the high palm-type trees. That was the result of the dark-friendly chemosynthesis. Animals, however, were not around or they were not visible. So this was not Karn, unlike Team Lightyear had on the first spot assumed. No wasps, no bees, no hornets, no mosquitoes... it was completely bug-free environment.
"Ahh the wonders of the nature..." XR moaned ironically when he got tangled up with a vine and had to be cut out with scythes.
"Any more flower-power hailers here than the Tin Toy?" Warp guffawed.
"Well... I kind of like... umh..." Booster shyly noted.
"Oh, yeah... you were the peasant. And weren't ya, Zora, originating from some forest farm?"
"Not exactly, Darkmatter. You do know Morph, do you not? It is like Tellus, has a lot of nature on it. But I understand if you have lived half of your youth on Trade World, you shall not see quite much trees over there", the Emperor answered. "Artificial flowers, maybe. Ruhahah wrah groh graah."
"Laughing to his own jokes... Or can I describe that being laugh? It actually sounded a lot more human when he used to have the purple bucket on", XR hummed silently to Mira -so that no one else heard- who had listened to the small talk her mouth in a light grin.
Gradually it was the time to settle down for the night, again. The hopes were still high of finding the herb. So, more reading of The Peregrinator's Journal at the campfire and trying to figure out what the plant would look like. Browsing, scanning, squinting the eyes... until a little screech startled the encampment.
"Hey, hey, turn back! What was that?" Zarah stuck her hand into the holo as if it would have brought the previous page back.
"Here's the last holo. What about it?"
"Look, that little brown mushroom. Isn't it..."
"Jim-kraken-dandy!" she was interrupted, "Ahh, of course, of course, that is capital! Glorious! Of course that is tuppengalar, the other symbiotic counterpart! Why have I not found that previously here?" Zurg gloated intent.
"Maybe because you're trying to read without your glasses..." Warp sneered.
"Quasars, Darkmatter, I do not need glasses, any more. I was operated with a laser surgery when... ah... you know when." The Emperor did not quite much want to point out that his eyes were healed up at the same time as he was recovering from the Planet Z accident.
"Okay, okay. Got the hint. Hint hint."
"Now will you two stop nagging about the glasses? We got now something documented here that should be sought for", Mira sighed.
"Jim-krak..."
"And please no more Jam-cracking-dandyism, we wanna go to bed." Darkmatter yawned in the middle. "If the boletus is now depicted, why bother keeping the late hours."
So everyone tiptoed into their tents.
The next day produced results already on the morning. The team cut their way through a large bush area, ending up to a little field with only a few trees. And there... XR, who was nearest the ground, almost caterpillared over those same mushrooms he had seen in the holo-drawing.
"Ohoy, guys... I think I bumped with the jackpot..." he whistled to the others to stop their headway.
"Great! Here we got a good start. The herb itself should be growing near", Mira nodded happily.
Booster indicated to the one who found it. As he had turned his head about his shoulder to see what the others were squatting over there, he got stumbled to a tree root. He ended up lying on his stomach in the soil, getting his mouth full of those legendary plants.
"Pthui! Ptyi! Stupid square root! Uh-uh..." he spat away the grass from his mouth.
"Hey! That's unfair! Why did ya have to get all the credits?" XR rolled to him, being jealous because of his findings. With his scanners he was able to recognise the green things in front of the Jo-Adian in a picosecond.
"Uh... what? Hot rockets, is this...?" Booster's eyes went wide.
"Only cold rockets, thank you. We don't need forest fires. Yeps, big guy, you're munching the magical spice."
"Ohh, wow! And I found it! Come here, everybody!" Cheerfully the ranger stood up and gesticulated to the rest of the searchers to come and see.
"Yeah, I bet they're gonna give you an academy award prize for that discovery..." the little robot furthermore unravelled his ill-will.
The herb occurred to be truly modest-looking dark-green grass-like plant. It had no flowers, whatsoever, and it grew right among the other weed. But it corresponded to all those details the old rhyme had told. No other of those rushes resembled at all the depiction. It had little round, wax-surface leafs, its stem was spongy and spotted. A true moment of merry-making it was indeed, when this living myth was now brought in front of the eyes of intelligent beings.
Thus... a report to Star Command was the first thing on to-do list. Commander Nebula on the other side of space sounded quite suspicious when Zurg's gruff laughter filled the ether.
"What? Craters, do you really think you've found it?" Zeb scratched his head in the little holo-statue transmitted from his office.
"You mean you did not believe in the whole thing?" Zora saw through that baffled expression. So the Commander had to give in.
"Well... sort of. I did this just for the poor Buzz... but I didn't actually think you'd find something..."
"Tsut, tsut. Is that it what they call the 'ranger intuition'? Do not believe anything you cannot touch right ahead?"
"No, no! Ranger intuition is something that is needed when predicting dangers and... eh... surprise attacks of evil emperors." Nebula had problems to hold his chuckles when seeing Zurg's bothered expression in the return-holo. "But... craters, of course I'm happy to see that you've succeeded in the journey! And that gives a lot better prospects for Buzz to..." Interruption occurred.
"You have found him, have you?"
Nebula's face went uneasy, "Uh... no. But we're in the middle of it."
-------------------------
So, the work was only at the beginning. Now would be the time to collect the herb, so that it could be transported out of the valley and even for further use in civilized environments. Zurg opened his wrist communicator and gave an enthusiastic announce for the camp outside the caves. Three rangers were asked to orient through the under-earth tunnel and come to lend a helping hand. If decent loads -and that meant the demand of a little village- of tha-grydda were going to be lugged outside the forbidden valley, more strong shoulders and backpack space would be needed to carry it. Unfortunately the mountain railway did not allow those brytares to scramble through; the tunnel was sometimes namely so narrow, that the animals would have gotten stuck into it just like if Booster would have tried to cram himself into a mouse hole.
After a few hours, Ronto and Kaadu with ranger Homeitiö came panting from the lock-miracle door. Thus began the barbering, every sprout visible of that herb was dug up with its roots, bottled and conserved into life-sustaining liquids. That latter substance was preserved as powder that could be mixed up with normal water and thus form the necessary fluid. The nearby little river was ideal for water-taking, after XR had made a quick-test about its safety. The percentages of sulphur were quite high, but that did not matter in this case. The thermal jars where the plants would stay as fresh as in a cryogenetic cylinder, were quite weighty. So it was not a piece of positron to carry them.
But... not all went through peacefully. Always there needed to be the weak link of the movie, the lonely thundercloud rolling itself vexingly over the sun. A quarrel was put up between Zora and Na-Vetta. The botanist, of course, would have wanted to take samples of several tens of other plants with, but there was no space left any more. So his suggestion was that they would spend a few more days in the valley and use half of the jars, meant for tha-grydda, and collect some other interesting grasses and hays into them. But Zurg's chest-tone objection to this was grave.
"We do not have time for this. Our food supplies are getting smaller day by day. It would take at least a week to complete your study project. No."
Spreading his arms in the air, the slim scientist grunted, "But this is the apex of my career! I haven't ever been able to visit any world like this... I mean, look at the changes, what botanic treasures this valley might close into itself!"
"No. And besides, we need all the possible space for tha-grydda. Those are the orders and so those shall be." There was not much compromise spirit in Lightyear.
"Cannot you see my point?" Na-Vetta's voice turned snapping, "Isn't there now...?"
"No there is not. This expedition was arranged solely for searching for tha-grydda, nothing else. You can apply Commander Nebula for another trip if you wish. But this time, no herbarium-collecting." Zora's tone was steady and austere. Turning his back at the stubborn forage fan, he only spurred on the others to quicken the stint, namely the collecting.
Actually, every piece of information the Emperor had said about the nutrition supplies and so on, was true. Zarah's accident, the continuous storms and other setbacks had delayed the progression quite much. There was the anxiety that the food would not even last properly for the return. But this did not convince Na-Vetta at all. Bitterly he began to brood darkly the neglecting. Although being in such a high position in the scientific circuits, he was not cooperative, merely self-seeking and somewhat an arrogant male.
"I hate that man. What is he trying to be? He's ruining my career! I could have found almost anything in here just in a few days and he only keeps whining about some food! Surely some man can stand with a bit smaller rations. He's just so selfish. Thinking about only that Buzz Lightyear and his healing up. The heck, he's just one man in this galaxy, how can that be so important, while it would be a triumph of science to bring these new species into the daylight!" Murmuring and pouting he tramped around and around the same circle in the grass, until Zurg's command stopped him.
"Now do not just play your merry-go-round there, but go and pick the herb like everyone else!"
Rolling his eyes, the botanist knelt onto the ground and began to snatch the plants out of the soil. And more he went on protesting in his mind. "What the heck he thinks he is? He's just himself standing there like some king and watching while everyone else toils! Just stands and whips! He could very well come here and mess his hands with the mould, himself! I'm just so sick of his haughtiness. One more feature that would point towards Emperor Zurg. Hmh... just come to think of it, he even walks in a similar way..." the botanist had stopped his work for a second and inspected the object from behind a large bush. "That swing to left... I almost could imagine him holding a hem of a long cape now in his hand... and wouldn't those extremely long, thin fingers sit well into some similar kinds of gauntlets Zurg once had...? Hm-hm-hm..." Seeing a hummock of tha-grydda right in front of him, he burrowed it out of its nest, wiped the compost off and set it to float into the preserving liquid. "I'm just quite sceptical concerning the so called 'healing power' of this thingy... I bet here would be a lot more interesting issues on this planet than just this. And I wonder what is the purpose of collecting this... I would see there some benefits, if this plant is going to be cultivated after the trip, but that's not likely. Stupid jerk. He could have gotten part of the kudos, if I would have brought something marvellous in front of the eyes of Capital Planet's Botanical University professors. And now, nothing. Only this one plant with no guaranteed impacts. Hmph."
So the picking was done, and all the knapsacks freighted. The overkeen Zurg packed his bags so full of those cans that had to give up almost third of his load. Although he was a very sturdy man, with more muscle power than even Warp had, he would have had to go on all fours if he had wanted truly to take all that mass back to the homey defile.
"Now, Mister Hercules, give the rest to ranger Munchapper. He'll carry even you on his shoulders if necessary", Warp horse-laughed at the Emperor, who was wobbling under the kilos. Grousing the man gave in, "Quasars! I shall show that I am the most powerful! I must rule, I must be the most magnificent! Quasars, I was going to send a holo-transmission to my Smoopsiepoo about this, but you come and spoil everything! Hmph!"
Hence the long way back could be started. The herb was collected and everything was supposed to be fine... but as the outside spectators had seen, the camp was like a ticking time bomb.