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“Interesting.” She tilted her head. “You must have had to do a lot of research on them. It’s changing an entire ecosystem.”
“Yes, so much.” He smiled, thinking about it. It made him excited when he first started. He had to figure out how to grow grass and how to get the land to work in his favor. He remembered endless hours staring at the land, wanting to shape it. It still made him excited.
“It was a trip, for sure, but I got it here, didn’t I? I made the land what I wanted.”
She nodded, looking over the land. “You did a wonderful job. You should be proud. And your cattle look amazing and well cared for. Most are healthy, but I can’t say that about all of them.”
SEVEN
HOPE
Hope was impressed by everything Deimos was telling her. It was clear he’d put his heart, soul, and countless hours onto working and perfecting everything.
He thought about nutrition and about spacing for the cattle. Meticulously, he counted out the yardage three times because he wanted to ensure that everything was correct. He even had the grass imported, and he watered it for months before he even brought the cows.
Not surprisingly, he picked the strongest cows at first, wanting to make sure they held up, and over time, he started grabbing any that fit what he wanted. He ended up getting more than he had planned on and ended up having to expand.
“I’ve done a lot to ensure everything works. I’ve asked around with other ranchers, and I even talked with many different scientific people. Biologists, agronomists, environmentalists, biochemists. The list goes on. I wanted to make this a foolproof plan.”
“And it seems like it is,” she said. “Everything looks like it’s working.”
He nodded, finishing the last of his meal. “It works. I didn’t have problems until just a few months ago, which is strange because nothing was wrong for a long time. They were thriving.”
Hope thought about the other ranches he’d told her about. Others had brought animals over and ran their own ranches. A young couple had chickens and ducks. They owned double the amount of space that Deimos had, but they had three times as many animals.
He also explained there was a younger woman who housed goats. She used them in a calming resort for people to enjoy open space. Apparently, goat yoga was still a fun activity people enjoyed doing.
Deimos went on about several other ranches and how each of them overcame something. But none of them had seemed to put in the same amount of effort as Deimos had.
Everyone had their food brought in. It wasn’t until Deimos planted the idea of tending their own livestock that others started to catch onto the idea. For some reason, his ranch was having the biggest problems.
“You know, it’s interesting. Why did it take so long for the issues you have to arise? It’s been years since you started this ranch. Could it possibly be the cows you got?”
“No.” He shook his head. “All the cows I’ve imported are perfectly healthy. It isn’t something genetic.” He sighed, looking outside the window at the cows. She watched his eyes light up when he looked at them. They weren’t just animals to him.
“I’ve watched several of them slowly die, and I don’t know how to help them. There have been no answers, and at this rate, I’d rather send them back to Earth than watch any more of them suffer.”
She swallowed, looking at them grazing. He had named each of them and had a story about how he got them. Some of them were funny, and others were just sad.
He rescued a few from bad homes and others he had raised since they were babies. He cared deeply about all of them.
“None of the other veterinarians knew what was going on? They couldn’t give you a guess?”
He shook his head. “None of them understood what happened. They were healthy, and then suddenly, they weren’t. Most died too quickly for them to run a test. We’ve tested for diseases and for viruses, but nothing. They were healthy, but then suddenly, they weren’t.”
He rubbed his eyes and sighed.
“It just doesn’t make any sense.”
She thought about it. It was weird. And how had no other ranch come across such an odd problem? And why were they just dying? Most animals gave you clues if they were becoming sick.
They weren’t going to hear back from the lab for some time, so they had time to kill. After she finished, she went to her room to unpack all of her belongings and clear her head. She’d never gotten around to it the night before.
She hung up her shirts and folded her pants. She chuckled, seeing how her clothes were so different from theirs. She knew there was so much she still had to learn, and she was eager for it.
After unpacking, she headed into the kitchen and found Deimos cleaning up. She watched him for a moment, seeing the way his muscles flexed when he moved. She liked it. She wasn’t admitting anything, but she could certainly watch him all day if given a chance. She smirked to herself.
Pull yourself together, Hope. You’re here to work, not stare at some guy you hardly know. You have to figure out what’s going on with these animals.
