From College To Cradle - A Toddler’s Want For Intergalactic Exploration

Chapter 5
Plants, Food, & Farmer Kriptu

Chapter Description: Morning has arrived. After finding that Farmer Kriptu has invented yet another awesome food, I’m gonna go hunting with him to gather materials for my second hydroponics tray. I also learned something new today.

Date: 08:00 37th Cycle (08:00 Hours/27:00 Hours, Cycle 37 of 368, Planet Ayodele Standard Time)

Location: Ayodele Prime Imperial Base Alpha, Planet Ayodele Prime, Ayodele Alpha System

My eyes snap open and I sit up in my bed whilst my purple T-shirt flutters and my ATC Cruisers diaper crinkles. Hissing echoes around me as I dart my eyes around my shared bedroom and don’t see Brian. I bet he’s talking with the Overseer or hunting for fruit. I jump out of bed and waddle over to my Food Processor whilst the hissing dies down and grab six donuts from the tray seconds after selecting them.

I dart my eyes across the purple dough and waddle into the living room whilst my ATC Cruisers diaper’s wetness indicator fades from yellow-green to yellow. I dart my eyes around the empty living room, “Farmer Kriptu? Ensign Hapoton?” I return my attention to the donut plate and sit down on the couch opposite the green display showing off a selection of Earth cartoons in a grid menu, “Ensign Hapoton must have been watching these before assuming his duties.”

I glance down to the plate of mini donuts in my lap and pull up my watch’s inventory. I pull a baby bottle of Happy Fruit Tree juice from inside and drain the bottle a quarter. I smile as I pull the bottle from my mouth, “Ahhh…so good!” I turn toward the donuts and pick one of the small ones up. “Hmm…”

I drive the donut to my mouth and bite down. My eyes widen at the flood of cinnamon like flavor caressing my tastebuds, “YUMMY!” I drain more of my bottle and swing my legs as I devour the donuts and pull out another baby bottle of Happy Fruit Juice. “Now what else was I going to do today?”

……

Date: 08:07 37th Cycle (08:07 Hours/27:00 Hours, Cycle 37 of 368, Planet Ayodele Standard Time)

Location: Ayodele Prime Imperial Base Alpha, Planet Ayodele Prime, Ayodele Alpha System

Farmer Kriptu smiles as he stops at the steps of the exit of the Primary Maintenance Wing and watches me enjoy my second plate of six mini purple donuts. “I guess Stacey likes my new invention.” Farmer Kriptu walks into the living room and sits down to my left, “Stacey, I see you enjoyed the new donuts I made.”

I turn to Farmer Kriptu with a smile, “I love them!” I jump down from the couch and spin around to Farmer Kriptu, “OH! We were supposed to go hunting for the mineral I needed for my second Hydroponics tray.” I glance toward my watch and dart through the build menus until I stop on Hydroponics Tray - Build Materials: Pure Ferrite: 30/30, Metal Plating 2/2, Carbon 0/20.

I blink twice, “So I was out of carbon molecules in my watch’s inventory?” I stomp my foot and turn to Farmer Kriptu, “I’ve probably got thousands upon thousands of carbon molecules stored in the storage containers across the base.”

Farmer Kriptu chuckles and pats my diapered bottom, “Not to mention all those diapers we change, they convert into a sizeable amount of carbon molecules.”

I bow my head and press my index fingers together, “How…how much?”

Farmer Kriptu darts his eyes up and down me whilst his own Armorsuit scans my diapers, “They give out 5 molecules of carbon per change. So, after I get you changed, we can go hunt in the forest for the rest.”

“Okay.” I waddle back into my bedroom and spin around to Farmer Kriptu who’s walking over to my bed, “So, what made you decide to become a farmer?” I crawl onto my bed and lie down whilst kicking my legs, allowing my ATC Cruisers diaper to crinkle.

Farmer Kriptu opens my diaper drawer and takes note of the diapers, wipes, and powder on the left, while my purple T-shirts rest on the right, “I didn’t want to join the family business like my thousand other siblings of making profit endlessly.”

Farmer Kriptu grabs a fresh diaper, wipes, and powder from the drawer and rises to set them down to my right, “Planting flowers and making delicious food makes me happy.” He grabs my kicking legs and lowers them, “Now let’s get you changed.”

My eyes widen at Farmer Kriptu’s statement, “YOU HAVE 1,000 SIBLINGS?!” and swallow the lump in my throat as I hear my diaper tapes rip. I cough twice as Farmer Kriptu lifts my legs to slide the old diaper away. “That’s insane.”

Farmer Kriptu chuckles as he works on getting me dry whilst tossing the old wipes into my old diaper, “That’s normal for Faenus people. We’re all just one huge happy family.” Farmer Kriptu smiles as he lowers my legs so he can roll my old diaper into a ball and toss it upward for it to be converted into the 5 carbon molecules needed.

Farmer Kriptu closes his right hand into a fist to capture the molecules into his own Armorsuit inventory, “Alrighty, that’s five molecules.” He grabs the fresh diaper and unfolds it, “Now we just,” He lifts my legs with his left hand so he can slide the new diaper under my bottom and grabs the baby powder with his right hand. He powders my uplifted bottom and sets the baby powder down my head.

I giggle as I grab the baby powder and shut it, “I shut the baby powder for you, Farmer Kriptu.”

Farmer Kriptu smiles as he brings the circle decorated shell up to my belly, “Thanks, Stacey.” and secures the left diaper tape. “All most done.” He secures the right diaper tape and pats the front of my diaper, “All dry…for now.” He lifts me to my feet and delivers a loving pat to my freshly diapered bottom, “How did I do?”

I wiggle my diapered bottom and smile as the diaper hugs my waist. I waddle around my shared bedroom whilst wagging my diapered bottom and I giggle as my diaper crinkles throughout my journey, “It’s snug and hugging my waist perfectly.” I turn toward Farmer Kriptu as he returns the baby powder and baby wipes to my diaper drawer.

Farmer Kriptu rises and turns to ruffle my hair, “Glad I could help. It was my first time changing a diaper in a long while. After watching Ensign Hapoton and Overseer Drogra though, I think I got it.”

“Yeppers.” I wrap my arms around Farmer Kriptu and giggle when he returns my hug with a loving pat to my diapered bottom, “Come on!” I break free of the hug and waddle down the hallway. I stop at the end of the hallway and spin on my bare feet to wave at Farmer Kriptu, “Come on! Let’s go Carbon hunting!”

Farmer Kriptu smiles as he brandishes his pistol multi-tool and sets it to Primary: MINE Secondary: Geology Cannon, “I’m coming, Stacey.”

……

Date: 08:36 37th Cycle (08:36 Hours/27:00 Hours, Cycle 37 of 368, Planet Ayodele Standard Time)

Location: 5 minutes away from Ayodele Prime Imperial Base Alpha, Planet Ayodele Prime, Ayodele Alpha System

I giggle as our jetpacks lower us onto the snowy ground and I dart my eyes around the forest of trees, “Now we finally get to some trees that’ll give me more than two carbon molecules.” I take aim at the Happy Fruit directly in front of me and send a giant bolt of blue Geology Cannon Plasma toward it.

I growl when my watch’s inventory reveals I’ve only got nine molecules of carbon in my inventory. “WHAT THE HECK?!”

Farmer Kriptu walks over to me and pats my shoulder, “Calm down, Stacey. It might be the weapon you’re using. The Geology Cannon is mostly for making giant holes in the ground to prepare to go further underground and dig up minerals. However, when you use it on a plant or animal, it tends to vaporize a majority of the molecules and leave only Ferrite Dust in its wake.”

Tears swim in my eyes, “What? You mean…” I sniff and wipe my eyes with my balled up fist, “You mean to tell me all the time we’ve spent out here hunting and me blasting with my Geology Cannon has made it take even longer than just shooting the trees with my Pulse Splitter?”

Farmer Kriptu ruffles my hair, “Yeah. It’s okay though, with two of us it’ll only take one clip to take down that tree and get you ten molecules carbon.”

I take aim at the Happy Fruit Tree and lower my multi-tool seconds later, “What about all the fruit on that tree?”

Farmer Kriptu rubs the back of his head, “Well I don’t know. All I know is that when we fire on the trees and they burst into dust, their molecules are extracted, which is carbon. So I’m guessing that the fruit will be gone.”

My belly growls and I smile as I train my hand toward the tree, “I wonder if…” I inhale and my right hand is shrouded by a golden aura. My vision is tinted gold as the 200 Happy Tree Fruit roar from the tree and into my inventory. I turn to Farmer Kriptu as I lower my glowing hand, “Now we can convert it into the carbon we need.”

Farmer Kriptu swallows a lump in his throat at seeing my glowing eyes and hand. So this is the creation power Overseer Drogra told me about. He just used it just pull all those fruit off that tree. That…that’s amazing! “Al…Alright. Um…Stacey…you’re glowing.”

“Oh…” I exhale and the golden aura that once surrounded me and my hand fades, “Sorry Farmer Kriptu.” I brandish Ayodele’s Balance and turn back to the tree, “Ready?”

Farmer Kriptu takes aim with his pistol multi-tool, “Ready.”

……

Date: 10:47 37th Cycle (10:47 Hours/27:00 Hours, Cycle 37 of 368, Planet Ayodele Standard Time)

Location: Ayodele Prime Imperial Base Alpha, Planet Ayodele Prime, Ayodele Alpha System

“That was fun.” I waddle into my shared bedroom and train my eyes on the empty space where the second hydroponics tray is going to rest. “So Farmer Kriptu?” My vision is tinted gold as I point to where the hydroponics tray is going to reside. I close my hand into fist whilst hissing echoes around me as my expended energy leaves my body and changes my ATC Cruisers diaper’s wetness indicator from green to yellow-green at the top while remaining green from the middle downward.

Farmer Kriptu smiles as he scans the hydroponics tray sitting against the wall, “That’s just amazing, Stacey.” He pats my shoulder, “Now we can finally plant that Frostwort.”

“Yeah!” I waddle over to the hydroponics tray, oblivious to the hissing noise ramping up and fading seconds later leaving my ATC Cruisers diaper’s wetness indicator yellow-green. I smile as aim my blue glowing hands at the hydroponics tray and straightaway a blue stemmed, blue petalled flower appears inside, “Wow…it’s pretty.”

I turn to Farmer Kriptu with a big smile, “How long will it take to grow in the hydroponics tray?”

Farmer Kriptu rubs the back of his head, “With the advanced technology of the hydroponics tray what would normally take weeks to a month, narrows down to about one hour?”

My eyes widen and then return to normal, “At least it’s not almost a whole day for the other plant I saw on that scorched world. I never wanna go back there again!”

Farmer Kriptu smiles at my talk of discovery, “What plant was it?”

“The Solar Vine. I needed it to create solanium so I could make the Agriculture Terminal that you needed before I could bring you on as a member of our family. I’ve been all over the galaxy in different systems, be they Faenus, Alvus, or Vykeen. Freezing planets with -125℃ or scorched planets with heat storms of over 300℃.”

I grab hold of Farmer Kriptu’s shoulders, “I don’t want to go back to that planet. THERE WAS NOTHING THERE BUT ROLLING SPINE BALLS AND WIND LIKE CREATURES AND UNBEARABLE HEAT! I nearly ran out of Ion Batteries to keep my Heat Protection charged. It was INSANE! Who would want to build a home on such an unbearable world?”

Farmer Kriptu chuckles and pulls me into a hug, “Well we’re safe at home now so it doesn’t matter.” He brings me out of the hug and smiles as he pokes my belly, “Tag. You’re it, Stacey.” Farmer Kriptu chuckles as he inches down the hallway toward the starship launchpad.

I giggle as I stomp my feet and waddle after him, “You’re gonna get it!” I extend my arms outward right as he begins running down the empty hallway, “RAWR!”

Overseer Drogra sidesteps right as Farmer Kriptu speeds past him. Seconds later I waddle-run past him and he smiles, “Looks like Farmer Kriptu’s childish spirit has been rekindled by being around Stacey. Such a wonderful family I’ve become a part of.”

I smile as I waddle-run across the snowy ground of our base in an attempt to catch Farmer Kriptu. This is so much fun. I love it here. Glad I came to Ayodele Prime.