Mansion Tour: Part 11

Inoshana was impressed by what she had seen so far, and the grass felt absolutely lovely under her feet. It was moist, but not too wet, from being watered just a moment ago. As they drew closer to the strange glass structure that Yuri had called a “greenhouse,” she began to notice the outline of what appeared to be a door that had been carefully hidden in the design of the structure. Yuri pulled up the strange device he said allowed him to do some additional controlling of things around the facility and its grounds, then did another strange ritual with the device that caused the nearly invisible door to swing open.

“This facility,” said Yuri as they drew closer to the open door, is designed to house and protect some smaller plants from outside influences. It’s also designed to operate on a system called ‘hydroponics,’ which means little to no soil is used, and the plants are completely planted in a special nutrient solution that flows around like water. Each of the plants has different requirements, so some of the plants are completely immersed in hydroponics while others are in a state that is special soil that has the nutrient solution fed to it at predetermined intervals. The facility is broken up into specific groupings to make getting what I want from the garden here easier.”

As the group stepped in, they could feel how much warmer it was inside, but it did feel like the air was as moist as earlier. Once the last of the group was in, the door silently and carefully closed behind them. The group found themselves surrounded by a small collection of root vegetables that were in soil that smelled of peat moss. Lithira and Usagi thought they had seen some wild versions of some of the plants they saw, but most of the plants were unfamiliar. Each of the compartments even had the names of the plants, which were unfamiliar to the group. And these root vegetables seemed to be in some kind of raised soil garden that had quite a bit of depth to it.

“The ones closest to the door are different kinds of carrots,” said Yuri as he gestured to the plants around them, “they’re only one of the many families of root vegetables; they come in 4 colors; Purple, Orange, Yellow, and Red, the orange variants are the most common in the commercial markets for the populous where I come from. That said, most of the carrots grown here are purple, mainly because that’s my favorite kind of carrot. You’ll notice all the root vegetables are grown in a peat soil mix; this is because I think root vegetables are better with some sort of soil to try burying themselves in to propagate. Moving on from the carrots,” the group was led down four or five sections, “we are brought the radishes, then moving on from those are the onions and celeries. Just past those are a few different kinds of potatoes. At the end of the root vegetable section are the gingers and turmerics. Just beyond that point, you’ll notice a bit of space,” he said as they came into said space, “before we encounter the fully hydroponically grown plants, starting with the tomatoes. This is just a brief introductory tour of the greenhouse; I’ll give a more detailed guided tour of the facilities for anyone who is more interested later.”

Usagi was impressed; she was once again taking mental notes; the idea of an enclosed facility for growing plants apart from the environment outside was inspired; it could also help with keeping tighter control over access to any given plant. She just had to inquire further, “How can so many plants be regulated in such a space?”

“Careful research,” said Yuri. Each section has its moisture and temperature regulated by an automated system I have set up.” He stopped for a beat, “which reminds me.” Yuri moved over a bit in the open space and pulled up a trapdoor in the middle of it; the space was a bit tight around him, so only the smaller members of the harem could join him on the descent down the ladder. Usagi and Althana followed Yuri down the ladder.

As they got closer to the bottom of the chamber, the climb seemed to be around thirty feet, and a set of lights flicked on. A 30-by-40-foot room with a 25-foot ceiling was where the ladder stopped. The room had what looked like some different liquids flowing in half a dozen clear pipes around the wall; there was a door off to the right side of the room with the image of a plant in a pot. There was a door in the back to the left with what looked like the image of a barrel with a liquid on it.

“What are those symbols on the door,” inquired Althana.

“The one with the plant on it is where I keep the spare seeds and soil,” said Yuri. After a moment of thinking, he said, “I’ll see about getting a few samples to Usagi later, but I’ll have to separate the samples into different containers. It might take some time to get those gathered up.”

“Much appreciated,” said Usagi.

“As for the other door,” said Yuri; the attention of the other two moved over to what looked like a door where all the pipes got closer to converging they hadn’t noticed prior on the opposite side of the room from the plant image door, “that’s where I keep the chemical mixes for the plant solutions. And yes, Althana, I will be giving you some samples to analyze on your own so you can try recreating the mixes; I’ll have to replace what I have when the levels get a little too low.” He took a moment to think before saying, “I’m going to have to check chemical levels for the pool as well.”

“Why would you have to do something like that,” inquired Althana.

“The pool is designed as a type where all you need to do is add in what is basically salt used to flavor food, so the kind you add on when cooking or adding a little something extra at the table,” said Yuri, “it basically mixes the salt in the water to give it a similar salinity to what is present in human tears, but if you get the mix ration a bit too high it would feel more like human sweat is getting your eyes and that is pretty irritating at best. That all said, there are some other chemicals that can be added the water to deter plants and the like from growing in the pool in storage for if the plant life is a bit too aggressive in its growth in the pool. But that’s usually for if the pool is out in the open a bit long, and you’ve seen the system I have for the pool to limit that sort of thing. That setup was pretty expensive on its own, and nearly doubled the overall cost of the pool’s initial installation.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” said Usagi, “finish your checks, and then you can lead us to the next part of the grounds.” She then went over to wait by the ladder. Yuri gave her a quick nod before checking on the door with the plant on it first, Althana following close behind.

Yuri used the remote to set a sequence that caused both doors to make an unlocking sound before they almost simultaneously swung open. Behind the door with a plant mark was a series of special boxes that had what looked like bags of soil on elevated platforms within the boxes and a set of lights that were making the overall chamber noticeably drier than the chamber the three were standing in. Turning around, to look at the other side, the door that was more of a convergence of the translucent pipes had a series of tanks that had some numbers displayed on them in big bright yellow displays; Yuri seemed to know the meaning behind this before making a curt nod to himself and pressing three buttons on the remote to cause the doors to swing shut in a smooth, silent motion together before making a synchronized locking sound when they were in the closed position.

“Alright,” said Yuri, “the checks are done; time to move on.” As he moved to the ladder, Usagi stepped aside and rather aggressively motioned for Althana to ascend ahead of the two, likely due to knowing what things would be like if the gnome were to be left unsupervised in this environment. Althana resigned herself to climbing first, knowing full well the precaution was not without merit before Usagie followed close behind, and Yuri brought up the rear during the climb; it didn’t escape his notice that Usagi was shaking her ass suggestively in his face as they climbed the ladder.

After the trio was back up, and Yuri had the trapdoor closed, he said, “We will be moving on to the next part of the tour, so that means leaving the greenhouse. If any of you want a more in-depth or intimate exploration of this facility, then we can discuss when that can happen later. Also, if there is anyone you think could benefit from a visit to any of the spaces we have seen thus far, bring all that to my attention after the tour when we will have more free time.” With that, the party all filed out of the facility, after Yuri had reopened the door that led in. With that, he led them to the last space outside the manor that hadn’t been visited/explored yet.