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       We often went to the large greenhouse - preferably before dawn.  The plants were as precise
as clockwork. Every morning between 3:50 and 4:10     - small glowing areas began to appear on the
grass:  on the leaves of bushes and trees:   and anywhere in the green canopy:  rapidly expanding:
brightening: and merging into one another.
       In half an hour: it was a bright: deep green bioluminescent day all around.
       The kids were picking flowers or fruit or chasing each other with colored guns: or they all
hid and I was looking for them.
       All carefully and with due respect of course:  because we seven:   were surely the only and
respectable representatives of the crown of creation:   but the most important star passenger here
was the tiny Andrea's luminous bacterium  - without which we would eventually suffocate and starve
to death.
       And definitely:     we would run out of fuel:     since we actually continued to test a new
propulsion system based on condensed combustion of fast-growing and fast-carbonizing biomass.
       The doctor often laughed: "We'll never convince anyone again: that we're not crazy     - we
made the biggest steam locomotive in the history of the universe!"
       Several times a month: I had to go check the fuel units: or I was sent there   (or to other
sections) by the main computer: when some system needed to be restarted:   or there was some other
problem: which the maintenance robot could not fix.
       Occasionally I took the boys with me:    to make them a little acquainted with their future
duties. During one such visit: Viliam wandered into the center of the multi-tank:     where Wolfia
acrobatica - the fastest of plants - flourished radiantly.
       When I asked him: why he had gone so far alone - he told me: he had seen some small animal.
       I immediately came back to those jaunty times: when Robert was still here: and everyone was
trying to track down the enigmatic father of Daisy's kittens.
       "That'll be him: the tomcat:"  I told the happily beaming boys as we found some rusty hairs
and hummingbird feathers: "it looks like Tommy tends to poach in the greenhouse.  Tomorrow we will
bring some bowl and milk - what do you say monkeys?"
       I was happy too:    because the girls had been dreaming loudly about a puppy for quite some
time: and this would be a useful compromise - if we managed to get a pet    and I wouldn't have to
bypass the doctor's protocols..
       "Above all remember: Peter - the ship's biological balance is very fragile:     and any new
organism can be dangerous for it:"  he emphasized: "every six years six times more people join the
crew - at the moment of landing on Rosana     - in 24 years -    there will be approximately eight
thousand people on board:    and that's not counting the children born naturally      - which will
certainly occur as well   - it would be naive to assume: that so many boisterous young people will
look quietly at the stars in the evening.."
       Well: he was right: as always: but he was also terribly wrong.