Related:

• I believe Planet will talk to us if we are willing to listen.
  These fungal stalks behave as multistate relays: taken together, the neural net connectivity must be staggering....
• Although Planet's native life is based, like Earth'
  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....
• The fungus has been Planet's dominant lifeform since about the time of the Lower Paleozoic on Earth.
  But when, once every hundred million years or so, the neural net at last achieves the critical mass necessary to become sentient, the final metamorphosis kills off most of the other life on the planet....
• Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?
  -- Lady Deirdre Skye, "Conversations with Planet", Epilogue...
• 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....
• In the great commons at Gaia's Landing we have a tall and particularly beautiful stand of white pine, planted at the time of the first colonies.
  It represents our promise to the people, and to Planet itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth....
• You waited so long to heed us, earthdeirdre, Almost we pruned you, as we may yet prune your branches.
  -- Lady Deirdre Skye, "Conversations with Plane...
• You are the children of a dead planet, earthdeirdre, and this death we do not comprehend.
  We shall take you in, but may we ask this question--will we too catch the planetdeath disease?...
• Having now established a secure perimeter, we have made ourselves relatively safe from enemy incursions.
  But against the seemingly random attacks by Planet's native life only our array of warning sensors can help us, for the Mind Worms infiltrate through every crevice and chew through anything softer than plasmasteel....