Planet's atmosphere, though a gasping death to humans and most animals,
is paradise for Earth plants. The high nitrate content of the soil and
the rich yellow sunlight bring an abundant harvest wherever
adjustments can be made for the unusual soil conditions.
The Isle of the Deep is really not a single creature but a colony
of thousands of individual tubules, an aquatic vector of the Mind Worm
which terrorizes Planet's continents. Over its lifetime certain tubules
secrete a tough, gluelike substance which hardens to form the
characteristic shell that floats the colony and creates the appearance
of a rogue island.
Although Planet's native life is based, like Earth's, on right-handed
DNA, and codes for all the same amino acids, the inevitable chemical
and structural differences from a billion years of evolution in an
alien environment render the native plant life highly poisonous
to humans. Juicy, ripe grenade fruits may look appealing, but a
mouthful of organonitrates will certainly change your mind in a hurry.
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