Uprooted

<p>Heavy footsteps sounded from behind Skyla, and she turned to see Captain Solenar approaching. He gave her a nod, his jaw set in a grim line.</p><p>.</p><p>“All of our work... ” Skyla’s voice cracked as she looked out over the landscape in front of her. It had taken the group of extraterrestrial experts years to develop the beautiful Crimson Iris, but even before that, the captain had spent decades researching. It was his life’s work, and it had taken the team much planning and sacrifice to safely transplant the delicate flower onto the Kyrgythinian planet. Finally, they had planted a great crop of irises. But now, no flowers could be seen under the Bushvine Thistle Plant that was sweeping across the planet. Skyla knew that Dr. Nocscale had to be the one who had wreaked havoc. As the universe’s most notorious botanical terrorist, he made it his quest to destroy every beautiful creation Captain Solenar had made.</p><p>.</p><p>Skyla reached down to tear a thistle plant out of the lush ground and winced as thorns tore her skin. “It will take years to weed all this out... ” She grimaced. “And even if we try, we have no guarantee that we will eradicate all the invasive thistle seeds from the planet.”</p><p>Captain Solenar gently motioned toward the thistle that was still in her hand. She held it up, and was surprised to see a young Crimson Iris that had been uprooted with the thistle. “We can’t weed out these noxious plants,” he said, “or it will destroy all of our work forever.”</p><p>.</p><p>“Then there is no hope.” Skyla felt tears of frustration well in her lavender-colored eyes.</p><p>.</p><p>“Look,” the captain’s deep voice directed. He pointed to the roots of the iris, and Skyla noticed the flower’s roots were long and strong, while the weed’s roots remained shallow. “If the flowers reach toward the water beneath the ground, they will survive. Then, when harvest season comes, we will gather all the plants together. We will harvest the seeds of the Iris, and burn the thistle.”</p><p>.</p><p>“That’s a lot of wo