Life on Mark II

Expedition rain

Chapter 4

Commander Halin

The next morning, the groups assembled in their area. They packed backpacks with food and water and began to walk with notebooks open and pencils flying writing about everything in their surroundings. The weather looked like the it might rain soon but the eager students payed no attention while noting the strange flora. All of the groups moved in different directions agreeing to meed by the shuttle. Their pencils never stopped moving for more than a few seconds. by four hours they had explored three miles and weren't showing any signs of fatigue or hunger, so absorbed were they in making their observations. The rainclouds were thick now and a light drizzle began. The new variable brought fresh new spectacles whenever a drop hit the ground. 

Instead of just soaking the ground, where each drop fell, small flowers grew. They were about a centimeter wide, with petals of pure, unblemished white. The strange thing was that whenever the flower was left without more drops of rain, the flowers curled into themselves and disappeared into the ground. One of the students, a tenth grader named Trinity Hinreys in Halin's group, went up close to the flowers to see them sink into the ground. She noticed that when they did they made a sort of "Poof" sound and she noticed that it was oxygen. The air was ejected with pressure enough that she felt it tickle her nose. The plants were going through some type of accelerated photosynthesis. Also, she noticed that when more drops hit a flower then it grew very slowly. As it got bigger more raindrops hit it and it grew faster. after sometime it was taller than most of the older students.

When the drizzle became a downpour the flowers started to grow at an alarming rate and Trinity wondered what would happen if they did what the smaller ones did on a larger scale. As the white petals reached higher and higher they started to change colors. Instead of the pure white they were turning all different kinds of blues, greens, reds, and colors that couldn't even be described. 

When the rain finally stopped the flowers still grew. A student in Kamal's group moved aside one of the petals to see the water collected and draining into the inverted center of the flower. When the water was all drained the now pink and green flower started to curl it's petals inward and Commander Hailin instructed them to lay flat on the ground as Trinity had informed her of her observation and her theory. It was a good thing too because now all of the flowers started folding and sinking. The whole thing looked like butterflies curling up their wings. When the petals were sucked into the ground a "FWOOSH!!" erupted from the earth as the atmosphere was refreshed with oxygen supplements. Along with the air there was some stray dirt that flew high and rained down on them. 

They all got a thorough dirt bath.