Growbed

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS Construct growbed with builder tool. Collect seeds, larvae, cuttings, spores or other reproductive material from wild organisms.

Place in growbed with builder tool. Wait.

Harvest crop when mature.

BACKGROUND Aquafarming is the growth of sea organisms for colonist use and consumption. Although there are no true plants in the seas of Proteus, many sessile organisms will flourish in correctly tended exterior growbeds.

If preserved seeds from the *Cicada*'s stores can be located, interior growbeds may be used to grow safe, metal-free human crops in a hydroponic bath. (Crops that require soil, such as trees, grains, and root vegetables, cannot be grown, since there is no Earthlike soil available to fill the growbed.) Some Protean organisms may also flourish in the interior of habitats.

Farming instructions: —Construct growbed inside or outside seabase —Use builder tool to plant appropriate larvae, spores or seeds in growbed (depending on interior or exterior placement) —Provide energy sources such as light, chemistry, electrical current or radiation —Harvest crop when mature

Note: starvation played a major role in the failure of the Habitat colony cohort. If no adaptation to Proteus' metal-rich biosphere can be devised, all human presence on this world will depend on internally farmed crops.