This is Chrysalis.

Part 5.

My legs hurt.

It was a deep, constant pain that increased with every movement accompanied by stiffness

that slowly but surely spread throughout my entire body.

I made my way to my window and looked out at Yovid's biggest city.

Its location had been carefully chosen for its access to the planet's single ocean

and whose surrounding mountains protected it from the seasonal storms that batted the continent.

I saw a mix of prefabricated, boxy white houses,

warehouses and workshops here and there.

High-rise constructions of bare concrete and still emerged from the sea of domiciles,

such as the lodging I was staying in.

This main city enjoyed far more activity than the other towns I had been visiting recently.

I had been taken on tours of irrigation projects,

oxygenate tree plantations, ground decalsification facilities and all the other places whose names I couldn't and didn't care to remember.

If I didn't know better, I would have thought Yovid's commissary of agriculture suspected our ulterior motives for being there.

But no.

Either the Zunvarian was a great actor or he thought our intentions were honest.

And I leaned towards the latter.

I had spent the last days of hostage of the commissaries of use of personality

informing me of everything there was to know about farming in a colony world.

And I had the sore legs to prove it.

...