Virtual Construction

It appears some of the research that was conducted on the station before the aliens had seemingly abandoned it had involved learning more about genetics, specifically watching how things evolved and how the little changes in the sequence caused the changes in the creatures. Unfortunately they didn't find Calypso, I'm sure they would have learned a lot more from that planet than the one they had been observing. The knowledge they did have would definitely help us in our task and the ship would be able to simulate the anticipated results based on its continued observations and data collection. Meaning we wouldn't have to create a ton of failed mutant experiments to get the results we were looking for. The easiest life to work from would be the plants, their ability to regenerate would mean that a single plant would be able to continuously create what we would need. In preparation for the process we gathered a few more resources from the new star system we were in and constructed a second habitat for our genetically constructed plant life. This habitat was much smaller than the first and was constructed on the underside of the ship, we had the gravity bend around the ship and be reversed in that room so that you could walk around the ship and into this room and not down a flight of stairs or need to transport, teleport or take an elevator. We then got to work simulating the changes that would occur in a few plants as we modified their virtual genome.

Shaping the plants was amazingly easy. It didn't take much effort at all to figure out where and what to modify in order to get the plant to either grow into the shape we wanted or to bear fruit in the shape we were needing it to be in. The next step would be in getting the plant to have circuitry within it, something that the ship could interact with or that would function much like the technology I currently had implanted in my head. The first solution to come to mind would be a nervous system in the plants, however this could give the technology the ability to learn to do things itself as the system developed and matured, this would not be an acceptable outcome with technology that was interacting with my brain. The second would be to have the plant grow on top of a technology shell, meaning we would have the wires and pieces run and the plant would actually grow around it. This seemed quite a bit more plausible for us to implement as it would be difficult to get DNA to construct conductive fibers where we needed them to go. The next problem we would have to face is how to get the plant to only grow where we wanted it to and how to care for it, a living organism would need nutrients.

The solution to control and nourish the plants actually would be interesting. The plan was, instead of creating a circuit for the plant to grow on, to create a mini biodome for it to live in with some bacteria specially engineered to provide light and recycle nutrients for the plants. The bacteria would also feed off of the plants and so the ecosystem would be self-maintained if done right. The virtual environment was created and balanced, the plants and the bacteria modified until they sustained eachother perfectly. We then introduced the fragments we desired into the equation. The results were a disaster. The plants and bacteria mutated far too quickly and the system collapsed. The evolution wasn't just the fragments, it was the creatures and plants trying to survive together with the new found abilities. We would have to continue working on this problem until we could either find a way to keep them from reacting so much with the fragments or until they actually evolved into a working order together.