ecological-micro-oases

In this chapter, Nadia and Arkady discover that the windmills they have been deploying on Mars secretly contain colonies of genetically engineered algae designed to survive and propagate on the planet, effectively beginning a covert terraforming effort. This revelation causes tension between them, as Arkady was kept uninformed about the secret project despite being its ideological originator, highlighting underlying factionalism and secrecy among the colonists. The chapter ends with their realization that the terraforming process is already underway, bypassing formal debate and signaling irreversible ecological transformation.