II #3
She thought aloud, while in her head assembling a vision of the future farm. Tomi interrupted her:
"What's aquaponics?"
Nika looked at him, flustered, because she was completely absorbed in thinking about the project. She needed a second to collect herself and grasp the question.
"Ah, aquaponics is growing plants on water within a system of tanks."
"On water?" Tomi stopped and looked at the girl.
"Oh yeah, agriculture uses an awful lot of water to irrigate the land. Are you following me?"
she asked, adjusting something on the electron microscope.
Tomi nodded. Nika continued: "And since only about three percent of the planet is fresh flowing water, you can imagine how we've overloaded water consumption. Many countries already have — oh, pardon, had — problems with irrigation. The population keeps growing and, of course,
more and more water is used, which, wouldn't you know it, is no longer so available. Maybe you saw something to that effect online?" Nika looked at him.
"Yes, there was some news about the Colorado River in America drying up before it reached the Mexican coast," Tomi confirmed.
"Exactly!" Nika agreed and returned to her microscope.
"But to continue. Rivers dry up, while the water in the remaining ones becomes too toxic for growing grains. So some clever minds invented the aquaponics system. It's about the principle of saving water and its maximum usability."
Nika finally left the microscope and walked through the laboratory.
"What do you mean?" Tomi asked, hurrying after her.
Nika stopped at a table and began drawing invisible lines with her finger. The sketch was completely easy for Tomi to grasp, since he had no problem with imagination.
"Like this, you take a tank, fill it with water, and on the surface you put plants inside something unsinkable, like Styrofoam, so their roots end up in the water. To that tank you connect another, and so you make a row of tanks with floating plants on the surface. Because for a plant to grow,
it needs three things."
"Water, light, and food!" Tomi enthusiastically chimed in. Nika smiled.
"That's right, I see you listened to my lecture at the table. So, we've solved the water, the light can be made artificially, while for food they need mostly minerals. Minerals that stream in the cave most likely possesses in abundance.
And so we do half the work without putting in any effort at all. Understand?" Nika looked at him.
Tomi nodded in confirmation, but asked again:
"You say half the work?"
Nika went on through the laboratory toward the medical clinic to check what Vlasta had managed to do. Along the way she explained:
"Yes, for growing plants or for their food, minerals alone aren't enough. We also need fertilizer."
"And how do we get fertilizer?"
Nika stopped and smiled.
"Well, there are two ways: human waste," Tomi frowned, understanding, while Nika laughed, "and the chemical way."
"Just tell me the chemical one, because somehow I don't fancy eating other people's crap." Tomi was still frowning.
Nika kept laughing as she continued toward the clinic.
"That's where the tanks come in — they're connected by pipes that carry all the biological waste from the plants into a special container, where, with a certain kind of bacteria, it's converted into ammonia, which is the most important food for plants.
And so you get a circular flow that saves energy and water and feeds the plants, which in turn feed us."
"And that way we survive as vegetarians." Tomi frowned at the idea.
"Better a vegetarian than starving to death." Nika looked at him seriously.
"Yeah, but isn't being a vegetarian dangerous in our conditions? A person needs a varied diet so their body gets all the substances. That's what I read online, at least, on sites where they trashed starving vegans," Tomi probed.
"You're all extremes, Tomi," Nika chided gently. "Vegans are an extreme, but vegetarians, though it's not my choice, can survive quite nicely on a plant-based diet."
"How? It's well known people need meat, and I don't see any cows or sheep here," Tomi looked around.
"Well, there you're on to something, you're talking about proteins."
"Yes, and we're a bit short on that."
"You're right." Nika pointed toward the caves. "What's over there?"
Tomi looked in the direction Nika was pointing.
"Well, a cave," he announced, confused.
"Yes, and what's in the cave?" Nika kept probing. Tomi grew more and more confused.
"Well, rocks, darkness, what do I know. There's that stream."
"It has the conditions, Tomi. And what loves darkness, humidity, and the cave's stable temperature?"
Tomi scratched his head. Finally he announced:
"Morlocks?"
Now it was Nika's turn to be confused. "Morlocks? What's that?"
Now Tomi glowed with satisfaction, because for once he knew something she didn't, so he explained cheerfully: "Morlocks are creatures that arose through evolution from a life spent underground. And the Morlocks feed on the Eloi."
He paused, because Nika looked more and more confused.
Then he calmly asked her: "Have you seen any version of The Time Machine?"
Nika shook her head. "I didn't have much time for films or series. Uni and all that."
Tomi nodded in understanding.
"Okay, I have to tell you about that film sometime, and maybe I even have it downloaded on the laptop, if I manage to fix it. Then I'll show it to you."
Nika looked interested. "Okay, then we've got a date set. I hope you have popcorn." Her smile immediately flustered Tomi. He felt awkward, so he returned to the subject:
"You didn't say what it is that loves darkness, humidity, and cave conditions, and isn't a Morlock."
Nika laughed. "Mushrooms, silly, mushrooms adore those conditions."